State judges have recommended that Peoples Gas receive $66.2 million in new rates, a 54 percent cut from the $144 million the company is asking for, according to the Citizens Utility Board. The Illinois Commerce Commission is expected to make the final decision in November, and the Citizens Utility Board said any increase would take effect around December.
What the company asked for
Peoples Gas first asked state regulators for $202 million, to finish its pipe replacement program, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. The company lowered the request to $144 million over the summer after criticism from consumer advocates, City Council members and the Illinois Attorney General's office, according to the Sun-Times. The Sun-Times reported that the $144 million request would raise the average residential bill by as much as $8 a month starting in January. The Citizens Utility Board put the figure at about $6 to $8 a month.
What the judges recommended
Two administrative law judges at the Commission recommended $66.2 million, which is $77.8 million less than the request, according to the Citizens Utility Board. Neither the Sun-Times nor the Citizens Utility Board gave a monthly bill figure for the lower amount, and the Sun-Times said the effect "wasn't immediately clear."
The recommendation is not a final decision. The Commission can accept it, change it or reject it.
The pipe program
The money is largely meant to fund the company's program to retire old gas pipes. Peoples Gas calls retiring 1,000 miles of old pipe "a binding safety mandate," the Sun-Times reported. A company spokesman said it is "reviewing the administrative law judges' recommendation."
Regulators ordered the company to scale back the program after years of running over budget and behind schedule, the Sun-Times reported. The Citizens Utility Board said the program "has been marred by mismanagement and waste." It cited an Illinois PIRG analysis that found the program "yields one penny in safety benefits for every dollar it consumes from ratepayers." Illinois PIRG said the judges' recommendation "gets some important things right" but "punts to a future investigation."
What the company's own filings say
WEC Energy Group, the parent company of Peoples Gas, said in a September investor update filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission that the revised request would add an estimated $7 to $8 a month to a typical residential bill, down from $10 to $11 before the request was cut. The filing says Peoples Gas is asking for a return on equity of 10.10 percent, up from the current 9.38 percent. It says annual pipe replacement spending is expected to ramp up to $500 million in 2028, and that the Commission ordered the work on more than 1,000 miles of old iron pipe to be finished by Jan. 1, 2035.
WEC chief executive Scott Lauber, who is also listed on the company's website as chief executive of Peoples Gas, said on a May 5 earnings call: "A key driver of this request is support the pipe retirement program in Chicago." Asked about the pace of future Illinois rate cases, he said, "I expect that it'll be more of an annual rate case kind of cadence as you think of Illinois specifically," tying that to the pipe program. On a July 29 call he said the pipe work was "going a little bit slower than we would like in 2026 here," and that "we expect the decision by the end of the year for test year 2027," according to transcripts published by The Motley Fool.
What consumer advocates want
The Citizens Utility Board wants the Commission to go further than the judges. Its general counsel, Eric DeBellis, said, "This is a step in the right direction, but we urge the ICC to go even further than the proposed order." The group argues that regulators have in the past cut gas rate hikes beyond what judges recommended. It also wants the Commission to reject a higher depreciation rate that it says the company could not justify, and to split the cost of directors' and officers' insurance between ratepayers and shareholders.
What we could not confirm
We could not find a monthly bill impact for the judges' $66.2 million figure, so we are not giving one. Reports differ on the size of the original request, with the Sun-Times reporting $202 million and the Citizens Utility Board reporting $205 million, so we are using the Sun-Times figure. No final Commission decision had been reported as of Oct. 26.
Our question
Should customers pay for upgrades to a company's pipe network? Tell us on TikTok, YouTube or Instagram, or write to contact@reofact.com.
Photos: ReoFact, including gas meters at an apartment building in North Center, Oct. 26, 2026, and a frame from our video. Portrait of Scott Lauber via Public Utilities Fortnightly.