Exelon CEO Cashes Stock Options

While Illinois consumers struggle to pay soaring electric bills and brace themselves for back-breaking summer air-conditioning costs, utility giant Exelon and its chairman, president and CEO John Rowe have been sweeping in massive profits, Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn revealed in a news conference Sunday, June 3.

In a study of documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Quinn found that Rowe has cashed in stock options for more than 345,000 shares worth more than $24 million � and has raked in profits of more than $14 million -- since Jan. 2, when Illinois consumers were slapped with an unfair, unnecessary electric rate hike.

�But thanks to the anti-consumer actions of the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) and the lack of decisive action in the Illinois State Senate, ComEd is an unregulated monopoly with profits that are leaping into the stratosphere,� Quinn said.  �As a result, John Rowe is cashing in millions upon millions in stock options while Wall Street applauds this continuing corporate plundering of consumers� pocketbooks.

Although the Illinois rate hike has clobbered small businesses, senior citizens, and everyday people struggling from paycheck to paycheck, the new, higher electricity prices have been a bonanza for Chicago-based Exelon Corp, ComEd�s parent company.  The giant corporation�s first-quarter results, announced in April, showed earnings of $691 million � up nearly 75% from the $400 million in earnings reported in the first quarter of 2006.

�ComEd is funneling massive profits to its corporate parent, Exelon,� Quinn said. �Exelon is the biggest seller of electrical power, which means that consumers throughout the Land of Lincoln are turning their pockets inside out to further enrich this giant corporation.�

Adding insult to injury, the utility giant is spending millions on yet another misleading television ad campaign through  �Consumers Organized for Reliable Electricity� (CORE) -- a phony �consumer� group created and funded by ComEd to dupe northern Illinois consumers into supporting the unnecessary rate hike.
The latest round of ads criticizes the General Assembly for refusing to accept ComEd�s insufficient offers to give consumers modest rebates in return for the multiple billions of dollars in new annual profits the rate hike will mean to Exelon and St. Louis-based Ameren.

 �ComEd believes Illinois consumers will swallow these latest attempts to frighten them into accepting massive rate increases,� Quinn said.  �I think consumers will understand that the utility company�s scary predictions of massive blackouts don�t stand up against the hard facts of the massive profits recorded in these SEC documents.�

As the General Assembly moves into overtime, Quinn urged Illinois consumers to call their state legislators and demand action to roll back the rate hike and reform the Illinois Commerce Commission, which approved the flawed reverse auction� process that led to the current over-inflated electric rates.

 �It�s not a true auction when the seller � Exelon -- is making bids to its own subsidiary,� Quinn said. �Without real competition, consumers are being held hostage by an unregulated monopoly. It�s time to roll back the rates and protect the people of Illinois. This is a matter of simple economic justice.�

Although ComEd and Ameren have mounted high-priced public relations campaigns to frighten consumers with threats of massive layoffs, widespread power outages and even corporate bankruptcy, Quinn has continued to remind consumers and lawmakers alike that these utility companies were already banking record profits under the previous nine-year statewide rate freeze.

�ComEd and Ameren are trying to dupe Illinois consumers into believing that their enormous rate increases reflect the actual cost of power,� Quinn said. �As the New York Times has reported, the current market system for electrical power is unfair and only serves to line the pockets of these greedy utility companies and their overpaid multimillionaire executives. The idea that these proposed rate increases reflect the actual cost of providing power is complete baloney.�

Quinn�s fight to protect Illinois consumers from unfair utility rate increases has been joined by many legislators statewide, along with the Citizens Utility Board (CUB), AARP, and other grassroots organizations.  In 1983, Quinn spearheaded creation of CUB, a non-partisan not-for-profit organization that advocates for utility rate payers.

For more information on the Lt. Governor�s battle to protect Illinois consumers from unfair electricity rates, please visit www.StandingUpForIllinois.org.