CHICAGO - Attorney General Kwame Raoul is reminding Illinois residents as temperatures rise above 90 F this week, that a recently-effective law protects vulnerable residents from gas or electric utility service disconnections for nonpayment of bills when temperatures are 90 F or above, or when the National Weather Service issues an excessive heat watch, heat advisory or excessive heat warning.
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Attorney General Raoul initiated the law, which went into effect Jan. 1, 2024. Temperatures around Illinois in the coming days are forecast to above 90 F in places with heat indexes above 100 F. Raoul is urging Illinois residents to be aware the update to the Public Utilities Act (PUA) means they cannot be disconnected from their gas or electric utility service during the excessive heat.
“I want to remind Illinois’ most vulnerable residents that this law protects their health and safety during extreme heat by prohibiting utilities from disconnecting electric and gas service for nonpayment when we face dangerously high humidity or extreme temperatures,” Raoul said. “Illinois summers are not the time to put lives at risk by disconnecting critical utility services when they are relied upon most. No one should lose their life due to heat.”
Prior to Raoul’s law going into effect, the PUA prohibited disconnections when the temperature was 95 F or hotter and did not account for the heat index, which is what the temperature feels like to a human body when relative humidity is combined with the air temperature. According to the Attorney General’s office, the previous protections in the PUA were insufficient to protect the most vulnerable Illinois residents, such as older adults, very young children, people with chronic conditions like high blood pressure, and residents who lack access to air conditioning or fear high electric bills if they use air conditioning.
Raoul’s office pointed out that to accurately assess the danger of heat, both humidity and temperature must be considered. For example, a temperature of 92 F at 100% humidity can be dangerously hot, while higher temperatures may be less dangerous when the humidity is low.
From May to early July 2023, there were eight days in Illinois when temperatures rose above 90 F.
Compliance reports that utility companies are required to file with the Illinois Commerce Commission showed that between June and September 2022, one utility disconnected 136,363 residential customers from electric service and another utility disconnected 26,288 residential customers for nonpayment.
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