Courtesy of Mark Staff Brandl

What makes ArtStyle unique from other sites concerning Chicago art operating in cyberspace? Art or Idiocy is clearly Erik Wenzel’s personal, rather pro-SAIC blog, with some enjoyable perceptions; Iconoduel is very infrequent, yet marvelously well-written and well thought out; Bad at Sports (BAS) specializes in podcast interviews, with great comments raised by the interviews; and Sharkforum is the voice of artist-based independence and critique.
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Technorati Tags: Art or Idiocy, Iconoduel, Bad at Sports

This week concludes my research on the outrageous rate increases on all-electric buildings. First, I discovered some unsettling findings about Midwest Generation, one of the prominent suppliers of power in Illinois. I follow this with reasons why the huge rate increase imposed on consumers in all-electric buildings is not only unfair but makes little economic sense. And then there occurred during the past week some very modest progress in rolling back the electrical rate increases.

Broken Promises

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Technorati Tags: power in Illinois, electrical rate increases

In last week’s blog, I called for a freeze of electric rates because competition, necessary for establishing electric rates that are fair to the public, does not seem to exist. The bygone era of monopolistic control and price setting exists once again.

Electricity Charges Up by 70%-80%

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Technorati Tags: freeze of electric rates, monopolistic control

I was mystified by the huge increase in our ComEd January bill — an increase of 62% in the unit cost per kilowatt-hour. Ten years ago, we all agreed to a rate freeze with the caveat that rates eventually would be based on competition after that time, but we were also told that deregulation would benefit us. We were told deregulation would mean lower rates for us as consumers of electricity and would improve our country’s competitiveness. But has it?
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Technorati Tags: ComEd, rate freeze, deregulation