By Maria Hickey, KWMU
St. Louis, MO. – The Illinois Attorney General has sued two Ameren subsidiaries for misleading customers over the all-electric discount program.
The lawsuit claims AmerenCIPS and AmerenIP continued to advertise the discount program, although officials knew that it would be discontinued.
The program was available to homes that used only electric power instead of a combination of gas and electric.
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan says the company signed up about
7,000 after they knew the program would come to an end in early 2007.
Clearly AmerenIP, AmerenCIPs were not providing their customers with the information about the discontinuation of this all-electric discount, and it's proven to be devastating for many families and individuals, Madigan said.
Ameren spokeswoman Erica Abbett says the company could not notify customers until it knew what the new rates would be.
She says rates were not determined until a power supply auction in the fall of 2006.
But the suit also says the increases in January of this year were much bigger than Ameren told customers to anticipate.
Abbett says there's not much the company could do.
"At the same time customers were facing increased electric rates, those same customers got hit with much colder weather something no body could have predicted," she said.
Madigan's office is seeking $50,000 in civil penalties for each customer affected and $10,000 more that that for senior citizens.