Environmental and consumer advocates marched through downtown Chicago on Thursday and delivered more than 10,000 public comments to state regulators, demanding they reject or deeply cut Peoples Gas's proposed $144 million rate increase. The protest capped months of pushback against a request that has pitted the utility's infrastructure spending plans against mounting customer debt across the city.
CUB said the comments were delivered to state regulators the same morning WEC announced its results, according to Citizens Utility Board, which organized the effort alongside other consumer and environmental organizations. CBS News described a planned protest outside Peoples Gas headquarters.
A Rate Request That's Already Shrunk Once
Peoples Gas's $144 million ask is itself a reduction from its original $202 million filing in January, which the company lowered to $144 million in July, according to Citizens Utility Board. Either way, the utility scaled back its demand well before Thursday's protest.
Regulators have already weighed in with their own recommendation. The group's reporting states that Illinois Commerce Commission administrative law judges proposed cutting the increase to $66 million. The commission is expected to issue a final decision in November, the Citizens Utility Board report notes.
Peoples Gas has said the money would go toward pipe replacements, infrastructure upgrades and covering inflation-related costs, according to ABC7 Chicago. The utility serves more than 898,000 customers in Chicago, per the Chicago Tribune.
What It Could Mean for Monthly Bills
Estimates of the hit to household bills also vary by outlet. Shaw Local reported the increase, if approved as proposed, would raise average household bills by $7 to $8 per month starting in 2027, while the Tribune's earlier reporting put the increase in residential delivery charges at $10 to $11 per month beginning the same year.
Those projections land against a backdrop of utility debt that advocates say is already severe. Nearly 160,000 Peoples Gas residential customers were more than 30 days behind on their bills as of September, carrying roughly $85 million in collective debt, the organization's report states. Shaw Local separately noted that nearly one in five Peoples Gas customers were at least 30 days past due that same month.
Profits Up as Debt Piles Up
The timing of Thursday's delivery was pointed: it came the same day Peoples Gas's parent company, WEC Energy Group, announced third-quarter profits of $389.3 million, a 43.5% jump over the prior year, according to the group's report. Advocates framed the contrast between that profit growth and rising customer arrears as central to their case against the increase.
The current fight is also part of a longer pattern. Delivery rates for Peoples Gas customers have climbed by $499 million since the company's pipeline-replacement program began in 2011, the Citizens Utility Board report states. The commission previously ordered Peoples Gas in February 2025 to reform that pipe-replacement approach and retire its remaining iron pipes by the end of 2034, per the same report. The utility's last full rate award came in November 2023, when it secured a $303 million increase, the Tribune reported.
Not the Only Utility Facing Scrutiny
Peoples Gas isn't the only Illinois utility drawing pushback this fall. The Illinois Commerce Commission approved an $82 million rate hike for Nicor Gas on October 15, according to WTTW News, a increase expected to add about $2 a month to residential bills starting in November. Illinois PIRG told WTTW that the Nicor hike marked the company's sixth rate increase in a decade.
With the Illinois Commerce Commission's decision on the Peoples Gas case expected next month, Thursday's march was likely advocates' last major public push before regulators finalize how much more the utility's customers will pay.
