The rate freeze that kept Illinois electricity bills low for the last 10 years will expire at the end of 2006. Rates will increase by 22 to 26 percent unless House Bill 5766 is passed.

HB 5766 would extend the electricity rate freeze already in place for another three years, according to a PR Newswire article found at news.corporate.findlaw.com. But then what? Illinois residents will have to deal with the same problems again, and by 2010, the percentage increase may be even higher, making it more difficult to acclimate. Nevertheless, an extended rate freeze would help bill payers more than it would hurt.

ComEd and Ameren supply much of Illinois with electricity. They argue that extending the rate freeze would greatly degenerate their businesses. Apparently, not only does the rate freeze expire at the end of 2006, but the long-term contracts that allowed ComEd and Ameren to purchase power at lower rates expire as well. Since the market price for electricity has risen in the last decade, they must pass these costs on to their costumers. ComEd and Ameren claim that if the rate freeze is extended, they will have to sell electricity for less than it costs them and their businesses will be in danger of going bankrupt. But that is sort of hard to believe.

ComEd is part of the Chicago-based Exelon Corporation, which has a customer base of 5.2 million, according to its Web site. It is one of the nation’s largest electric utilities, earning more than $15 billion in annual revenues. According to a document found on its Web site, Ameren serves 3.2 million energy — electric and natural gas — customers. It is a company worth $17 billion in assets. Surely, if these companies could survive a decade-long rate freeze, they could endure another three years. Perhaps new contracts could allow them to purchase power at a continued low cost. Power plants wouldn’t want to make their biggest customers unhappy. Or would new, smaller companies emerge, like what was supposed to happen during the rate freeze?

Somehow, when the 10-year rate freeze was initiated, smaller electric companies were expected to start up to compete with these huge, already-established electric companies. Ideally, this was supposed to prevent a price hike after the rate freeze thawed. Of course, this hasn’t happened.

It takes millions, or even billions of dollars of investment to build a chain of power plants. The possibility of not recruiting enough costumers isn’t worth the risk; not when your competition is multi-billion dollar corporations. And especially not when electricity rates are frozen at a low price.

Extending the rate freeze would not allow new competition any more than eliminating the freeze would. ComEd practically has a stranglehold on Illinois electricity, supplying 70 percent of the state’s population, according to its Web site. Although extending the rate freeze would not loosen ComEd’s grip, it would relieve the economic stress Illinois residents are under.

One out of four residents in the state live near poverty, according to the Census Bureau’s current population survey. If electricity rates increase, many people may cross the threshold that separates near poverty and poverty.

Please, send a letter to your state representative asking them to support HB 5766. For some Illinois residents, it would ensure a happy new year.

Steve Bartholomew is an opinion columnist for the Northern Star.