Illinois legislator channels Hugo Chavez:
Illinois government should get into the electricity business with a state-run, non-profit power agency, the leader of the Illinois House proposed Tuesday, in legislation that denounces Ameren and ComEd for recent rate hikes and service failures.
House Speaker Michael Madigan, one of the state’s most powerful Democrats, filed a bill Tuesday afternoon to create a publicly owned power authority that would use Illinois coal to generate and sell electricity to state residents at cost.
“Excessive costs of electricity (in Illinois) pose a serious threat to the economic well-being, health and safety” of residents, says the 47-page bill, which would establish the Illinois Power Authority Act.
Is there anything that government officials don’t think they can do better than private industry?
I didn’t think so.
