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(iStock / Kenishirotie)
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Your monthly heating bill could be going up.
That’s if the Illinois Commerce Commission approves a $202 million rate increase for Peoples Gas, which supplies natural gas to nearly 900,000 Chicagoans. The company said it would mean a monthly bill increase of about $10 to $11.
Meanwhile, Nicor Gas, which has 2.3 million customers in northern Illinois, is requesting a rate hike of $221 million. The company said the increase would add less than $6 to monthly bills.
Both companies said the money will be used to upgrade infrastructure as a matter of public safety.
David Schwartz, a spokesperson for Peoples Gas, said some of his company’s natural gas pipes are in their final years of usability.
“We must have a safe, reliable heating system in Chicago,” Schwartz said. “The pipes currently running underneath the ground are nearing the very end of their useful lives. The closer it gets to the actual end of their useful lives, which is coming before too long, the risk of an issue becomes a much greater concern.”
Schwartz said the funds generated by a rate hike would also go toward increased “environmental sustainability” in the Peoples Gas system, stopping leaks and shifting toward renewable natural gas and hydrogen.
More context:
Consumer advocates in Chicago said some infrastructure upgrades are needed, particularly replacing old iron pipes with new plastic piping.
But all projects should be viewed in the context of repeated rate hike requests over the past decade, said Abe Scarr, director of the Illinois Public Interest Research Group, a consumer advocacy organization.
“Nicor has raised rates already by 137% since 2017, and Peoples Gas rates have effectively doubled over the last decade,” Scarr said. “While there is some important need for some investment, a lot of the time what we’ve found is they’re overinvesting and spending wastefully in ways that drive up their profits and drive up our bills, but don’t deliver those safety improvements.”
Schwartz said Peoples Gas’ request is an attempt to comply with ICC orders to remove more than 1,000 miles of old piping by an accelerated 2035 deadline, moved up from 2040.
“That is why we filed this request,” Schwartz said. “To be able to do the work that the ICC directed us to do.”
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(WTTW News)
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The Chicago Board of Ethics, which has been without a permanent leader for more than six months, was forced to cancel two recent meetings, stalling several probes into campaign finance law violations, nepotism in city hiring and bribery.
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s failure to name a new Ethics Board chair has infuriated good-government advocates who are again demanding that he do more to combat Chicago’s reputation as the most corrupt of corrupt American cities.
Johnson told WTTW News on Wednesday that the fact that he has not yet named a replacement for former Ethics Board Chair William Conlon, who stepped down in July after nine years on the board, is not an indication that he has not prioritized ethics as mayor.
“Ethics are important,” Johnson said. “We have an entire process we go through to vet people. It’s about getting the right people in place, but absolutely ethics are important to us.”
Ald. Matt Martin (47th Ward), the chair of the Ethics and Government Oversight Committee said there was no reason the mayor’s office has not find a replacement for Conlon, who announced in June he would step down when his term expired in July.
“The mayor’s record shows a continued lack of commitment to ethics and government oversight,” said Martin, who has long been critical of time it has taken Johnson to fill vacant seats on the Ethics Board.
The search for a new watchdog: As the Ethics Board struggles to enforce Chicago’s ethics ordinance with a vacant seat, the search for a replacement for Witzburg, who is set to leave office in April, is underway.
For the first time in Chicago history, the search for the city’s next watchdog, who will earn more than $200,000 annually, is being conducted by a five-member committee created by legislation crafted by Martin.
Johnson appointed three members of the search committee, while Martin appointed the other two members. If Johnson accepts one of the finalists picked by the search committee, that nomination will head to the City Council for confirmation.
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“Rieles y Raíces: Traqueros in Chicago and the Midwest” is at the National Museum of Mexican Art through April 26, 2026. (WTTW News)
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Part of Chicago’s identity is rooted in its railroads, but an important part of that history has long gone untold. Now, an exhibit at the National Museum of Mexican Art in Pilsen explores how Mexican railroad workers helped shape the city’s infrastructure in the early 1900s. “Rieles y Raíces: Traqueros in Chicago and the Midwest” takes a closer look at the workers and how the roots they planted still shape communities today.
“A hundred years ago if a Mexican came to Chicago, you weren’t taking an airplane and you weren’t taking a highway because they didn’t exist, you were literally taking the train,” co-curator Ismael Cuevas said. “And when you landed in Chicago at Union Station or any of the stations downtown, the job that was readily available was a railroad job or a steel job or the stockyards.”
The exhibition is free at the National Museum of Mexican Art, 1852 W. 19th St. It runs through April 26.
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More From WTTW News:
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Back in the Day: January 26, 1966 - Martin Luther King Jr. Moves to Chicago
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In 1966, Martin Luther King Jr., then 37-years-old and coming off massive victories in the passage of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, turned his attention to Chicago. While he had taken on Jim Crow segregation in the South, he focused on the economic injustice in the North with his Chicago Freedom Movement, which highlighted unfair real estate practices, redlining, and the structural segregation throughout the city. On this day 60 years ago, King and his wife, Coretta Scott King, moved
into a $90-a-month North Lawndale apartment in a dilapidated building run by a slumlord to raise awareness of Black people living in cities. By August of that year, King's efforts got Mayor Richard J. Daley to form one of the nation's first fair housing organizations, the Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities. "Now is the time to get rid of the slums and ghettos of Chicago," King Jr. said at the time. "Now is the time to make justice a reality all over this nation. Now is the time."
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This Week’s Civic Events and Meetings
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Every week, WTTW News highlights the best ways to get involved with local government.
City Council Joint Committee: Police and Fire and Refugee and Immigrant Rights
On Tuesday at 1 p.m., a City Council meeting of its Police and Fire Committee and its Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights (CIRR) will happen at City Hall. They’ll discuss a potential amendment to the Municipal Code to modify powers and duties of the Civilian Office of Police Accountability to include conducting investigations into complaints made against members of the Police Department. For more details, click here.
“News Coverage of a City Under Siege”
On Wednesday evening at the Hideout, WCPT 820AM host Joan Esposito and former CEO of the Chicago Sun-Times Edwin Eisendrath will host a roundtable discussion with journalists Greg Pratt (Chicago Tribune), Jon Seidel (Chicago Sun-Times), and Colin Boyle (Block Club Chicago) about reporting during “Operation Midway Blitz.” The Jan. 28 event starts at 6 p.m., and you can buy tickets here.
Chicago Board of Education
On Thursday at 10:30 a.m., the Chicago Board of Education will host a regular meeting at CPS Loop Office, 42 West Madison Street, Garden Level, Board Room. If you’d like to give a public comment, you’ll have to register in advance from Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. until Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. A handful of those registered will be selected by lottery to give remarks.
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Restaurant Week is in full swing. What’s your favorite place to grab
a bite in your neighborhood?
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Email DailyChicagoan@wttw.com with your responses and your answers might be published.
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5:30 PM | 10:30 PM
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Newsletter Producer: Josh Terry
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