Protect Your Local Electric Cooperative from Costly and Unnecessary Legislation

Proposed legislation in Illinois threatens to increase costs for your local electric cooperative. This legislation would place excessive planning requirements on cooperatives. These requirements would be costly, unnecessary, and would take local control away from your cooperative.

Here’s what you need to know:

High costs: An integrated resource plan could cost your cooperative between $250,000 and $500,000 or more—every few years. As a not-for-profit cooperative, we would have no choice but to pass these unnecessary expenses on to you, our consumer-members.
Unnecessary regulation: Electric cooperatives already plan carefully to ensure reliable and affordable service. Our proactive approach has kept rates stable and predictable, unlike other utilities in Illinois that have experienced or will experience dramatic price hikes—such as the recent MISO capacity auction, where rates spiked from $30/MW-day last summer to $666/MW-day for summer 2025. Our planning shields you from these price swings.
Local control matters: Your cooperative is one of the few bills you pay where you have direct influence. Your board of directors is elected by you at your annual meeting. You can call your cooperative, talk to directors in the community, or even run for the board. That’s the power of local, democratic control, something this legislation would undermine.

Your community-based cooperative has a proven track record of providing safe, affordable and reliable power. Let’s keep it that way. Don’t let decisions made in Springfield take away your voice and raise your rates.

Thank you for your continued support.