SPRINGFIELD, IL– Illinois State Senator Ira Silverstein (D–Chicago) today voted against the ComEd measure despite claims that the trailer bill is better for consumers than the original measure passed during the spring session.  The bill, otherwise knows as the "Smart Grid" bill passed the Senate with 37 members voting in favor and 20 against. 

"The theory of updating and the electric grid and the system is a great idea, but not at the expense of the consumers.  Although House Bill 3036 does tighten up some of the loose ends that hurt consumers the hardest, it just does not do enough."

According to Silverstein, the biggest problem of the measure is the length of the rate cap at three years versus the spending program’s purposed length of seven to 10 years. 

"That is too large of a gap in time where ComEd and Ameren have an opportunity to make a profit through increased rates.  Another problem is that the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) will have less oversight to review reasonable costs, which potentially means more consumer dollars towards wasteful spending."

Earlier this year, ComEd customers experienced massive outages across the Northeastern Illinois region and blamed outdated technology for the slow rate of response.  Silverstein believes that while this is an issue that should be addressed to keep massive outages from occurring in the future, he does not believe House Bill 3036 gives enough oversight into how future responses will be executed. 

"The measure allows ComEd and Ameren the chance to exclude some of the worst storms over the past 10 years from their performance calculation.  This means that their formulas will be skewed to allow slower responses in future shutdown emergencies.  In my opinion, that’s not setting a goal to increase customer protection and benefit, but to excuse the little increase in emergency response that consumers will experience."