Chicago City Wire

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot recently announced the city has reached a 15-year deal with Commonwealth Edison, calling it "the strongest municipal utility franchise deal in the country."

“ComEd remains closely engaged with the city of Chicago to arrive at an agreement that will expand on our centurylong partnership to support and spur a reliable and equitable transition to a clean energy future for all of Chicago’s communities," ComEd spokesperson Shannon Breymaier said, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Another agreement is to promote Chicago’s climate change plan to have solar panels for low-income people and to create a thousand jobs for South and West Illinoisans. 

The agreement also has the option to extend the service for another five years.

Some lawmakers are already expressing concern the new agreement will tie Chicagoans with the embattled electricity company for far too long.

The newly announced pact represents the first the city has entered into with ComEd since the U.S. attorney’s office announced almost three years ago that the company faced a single count of bribery in a nearly decade-long scheme to funnel money and jobs to supporters of then-House Speaker Mike Madigan as part of a scheme aimed at advancing the company’s legislative agenda in Springfield.

After three-years of legal wrangling, the company agreed to pay a $200 million fine so federal authorities would drop the charge, but Madigan, ComEd executives and others remain tangled in the probe. Madigan is scheduled to go on trial for his alleged role in the scheme sometime next year.

According to ComEd's website, the energy supplier provides service to approximately four million people throughout northern Illinois. The company was founded in September 1904 in Chicago.