Moody’s, the credit-rating agency, now assigns junk-bond ratings to all four major Illinois utilities. It dropped Commonwealth Edison, a subsidiary of Exelon, below investment grade today, citing concerns about a rate-rollback bill that’s under consideration by the state Legislature. Moody’s already had…

Rating service Standard & Poor’s said today that it would lower the credit ratings of all Illinois utilities, “perhaps precipitiously,” if the state Senate passes a rate-rollback bill. A committee passed the measure Thursday on an 11-1 vote.

Exelon of Chicago owns the…

Scott Cisel, chief executive of Ameren’s Illinois utilities, held a telephone press conference this afternoon to discuss ways to reregulate the state’s electricity industry. He said the company is willing to consider a regulatory scheme that affects the entire state or…

I’ve only been away from the blog for a couple of days and quite a few interesting things are piling up. I’ll get them all posted as soon as I can, but one executive-pay filing is bound to get a…

Ameren has offered two packages in  less than three  months to soften the blow of electricity rate increases in Illinois, but Scott Cisel says consumers shouldn’t expect any more sweeteners.

The utility announced a $35 million package of rate subsidies yesterday, including…

St. Louisans still may be grumpy about the way Ameren responded to summer and winter storms last year, but an electricity industry trade group thinks the company’s response is praiseworthy. The Edison Electric Institute today gave Ameren its Emergency Recovery Award  for “outstanding efforts to…

The Illinois politicians who were promoting an electricity rate freeze didn’t get their legislation passed, but they did succeed in getting Ameren’s attention. The St. Louis utility announced a new phase-in plan today that will cut consumers’ financing costs in half.

Ameren…

An electricity  rate-freeze bill went down to defeat last night in the Illinois House. Legislators favored it by a vote of 65-33, but it needed 71 votes to pass under the rules of the veto session.

As I’ve written, the rate freeze…

Ameren is mailing letters today to warn hundreds of Illinois workers about possible layoffs, Ameren Illinois President Scott A. Cisel said this morning. The layoffs would happen only if the Legislature passes a rate-freeze bill that has been a popular topic on…