Cook County State's Attorney's Office

Cook County State's Attorney's Office:
Press Releases

Richard A. Devine
Cook County State's Attorney
500 Richard J. Daley Center
Chicago, IL 60602
(312) 603-3423

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
April 15, 2005

State's Attorney Devine Files Motion to Suspend Nicor Rate Hike

The Environment and Energy Division in the office of Cook County State's Attorney Richard A. Devine filed a motion today asking the Illinois Commerce Commission to suspend Nicor's pending rate increase request. Prosecutors are arguing that the Commission should suspend hearings in Nicor's rate increase since Nicor's activities during its Gas Cost Performance Program ("GCPP") is still under investigation. Prosecutors believe that Nicor's rate increase should not be considered prior to a resolution of the issues in its GCPP case.
"Apparently Nicor is pursuing this rate case despite its highly questionable activities during the GCPP," Devine said.
During Nicor's operation of its GCPP effective January 1, 2000, Nicor liquidated low-cost gas in its storage inventory. The cost of this gas was about 30 cents per decatherm (a decatherm is a measurement of gas). However, Nicor never informed the Commission that it was liquidating this cheap gas. It was not until the Citizens Utility Board received a whistleblower fax in June 2002 that the Commission and the Cook County State's Attorney Office became aware of the liquidation. Since the GCPP was terminated at the end of 2002, Nicor replaced a significant portion of the cheap gas with much higher cost gas. Nicor now is seeking a rate increase to compensate for the higher cost gas.

On April 5, 2005, Nicor filed additional testimony supporting its rate increase of $83.3 million. Cook County prosecutors previously filed testimony showing that ratepayers are entitled to a rate reduction of at least $15 million.

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