ST. LOUIS – Illinois’ lieutenant governor is urging people to mail tea bags to two electric utilities to protest rate increases – an idea that leaves the post office cold.
The Postal Service on Wednesday encouraged people to make their point instead with empty tea bags, saying lumpy bags could harm its equipment and create security scares by leaking brown residue.
“It’s absolutely legal for people to mail a tea bag,” said David Colen of the Chicago division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, a law-enforcement arm of the agency. “By no means are we trying to stop what the lieutenant governor is trying to do. We just want to keep the mail flowing.”
On Tuesday, Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn urged residents of his state to include tea bags with their electric bills in the spirit of the Boston Tea Party. After the post office objected, Quinn’s office said ratepayers could send just a picture of a tea bag.
Utility officials announced last week that electricity rates next year will increase an average of about 22 percent for ComEd customers and 40 percent to 55 percent for customers of St. Louis-based Ameren Corp. ComEd, a division of Chicago-based Exelon Corp., and Ameren together serve 4.9 million customers in Illinois.
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