Abraham Scarr –

The Kennedy Expressway near Randolph Street in Chicago is a sea of brake lights as traffic in the outbound lanes slows to a crawl on March 19, 2025. Across America and here in Illinois, homes and cars are among the most expensive things people buy. Insurance to protect these investments is costly as well. (Terrence Antonio James/baiduhai)

Abraham Scarr: Lawmakers must ensure Illinois consumers get insurance worth their payments

October 16, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.

Illinois is the only state in the entire country where it is legal to charge excessive home and auto insurance rates.

Garrison Riegel, left, and Jared Salvatore, of Celestar Solar, carry a solar panel onto a roof of a home in Schaumburg on Nov. 30, 2023. (Talia Sprague/baiduhai)

Abraham Scarr: Illinois lawmakers can cut red tape and make going solar more affordable

May 19, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.

A new Illinois bill would implement instant solar permitting and end cumbersome permitting procedures that add delays and costs.

A worker puts the finishing touches on a section of a Peoples Gas pipeline replacement project at Wrightwood Avenue and Sheffield Avenue in Chicago on May 29, 2024. (Terrence Antonio James/baiduhai)

Abraham Scarr: To fix failing Peoples Gas pipe replacement program, focus on safety — not expansion

December 19, 2024 at 5:00 a.m.

The true goal of the Safety Modernization Program is to expand Peoples Gas’ system and entrench its profits, not to protect public safety.

A manhole cover near ComEd headquarters on North California Avenue in Chicago on July 17, 2020.

Abraham Scarr and Dan Schneider: State decision-makers, don’t let ComEd reap $4.6 billion in profits over 4 years

December 11, 2023 at 4:53 p.m.

The ComEd bribery scandal led to the downfall and prosecution of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, the longest-serving statehouse speaker in American history. Four former ComEd executives and lobbyists...

Scott Kroll adds chickpeas to his sauce while cooking dinner using his electric induction stove June 29, 2022, at home in Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood. Kroll and his wife Clare Fauke fully rehabbed their home after a fire in 2020 and found that not only did going all-electric fit with their climate and health goals, but it wasn't significantly more expensive than going with gas.

Abraham Scarr: It’s time to consider ditching gas and going all-electric in our homes

December 19, 2022 at 1:43 p.m.

We in the Chicago region take pride in our ability to weather harsh winters. As a transplant from Kentucky, I often tell friends and family back home that it's not...

A ComEd truck sits at a headquarters building on July 17, 2020, in the 3400 block of Chicago's North California Avenue in July 2020.

Op-ed: It’s time to end — not extend — ComEd’s automatic rate hikes

April 21, 2021 at 2:45 p.m.

Last July, northern Illinois' electric utility, ComEd, admitted to actions prosecutors described as a bribery scheme — giving out jobs and contracts to allies of then-House Speaker Michael Madigan, who...

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, right, and Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels announce a partnership to build the Illiana expressway connecting Interstate 65 in Indiana with Interstate 57 in Illinois at a news conference in Lansing on June 9, 2010.

3 lessons from the Illiana boondoggle

May 11, 2019 at 2:23 a.m.

With a few sentences in a news release last week, Gov. Bruce Rauner drove a crucial nail in the Illiana Expressway's coffin, a precipitous fall for what had been Illinois'...

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