By AP/KWMU
Springfield, Ill – Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan alleges that corporate manipulation caused the huge jump in electric rates that consumers are facing.
She has asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to suspend the rates and investigate.
A ten-year freeze on electricity prices ended in January. New prices were set through a "reverse auction" where suppliers bid downward to the lowest price at which they would sell electricity.
That produced an average increase of about 22 percent for Com-Ed customers and roughly 50 percent for Ameren customers.
But some people have been hit with far bigger increases.
A spokeswoman for Com-Ed parent company Exelon says the Illinois auction has been deemed fair and reasonable by all regulatory agencies.