Good news, ComEd customers! You’re going to get about $19 per month credited on your electric bill for a short while.

Good news also for Anne Pramaggiore, the former ComEd CEO, who will get to leave prison while the federal government decides if it’s going to retry her criminal corruption case.

There’s a lot of news happening quickly these days, so here’s a brief summary: utility customers are getting cash back as part of the 2021 Climate and Equitable Jobs Act. According to Capitol News Illinois, lawmakers approved rate hikes so Exelon would have enough money to keep three of Illinois’ six nuclear plants running profitably. But as energy prices spiked, ComEd earned a bunch more than customers paid in, and now 3.8 million residential users get their share of a $1.8 billion surplus.

On the legal front, Pramaggiore and former lobbyist Michael McClain prevailed in front of the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals Tuesday. Judges granted both of them the right to new trials on the grounds that their conspiracy convictions couldn’t withstand the proper scrutiny of recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings on what constitutes bribery.

Both were due to stay in prison until August 2027. The other two people convicted in the so-called ComEd Four prosecutions had already completed lighter sentences and aren’t appealing the initial convictions.

Federal prosecutors also fried their biggest fish, former House Speaker Michael Madigan, who also is appealing his 90-month federal prison sentence before the Seventh Circuit. CNI’s Hannah Meisel wrote about that process last week, noting the primary argument that Madian never agreed to a specific “official action” nor did he have “corrupt intent” with respect to his role in ComEd hiring his political allies for most of a decade, occasionally for jobs they didn’t actually perform.

It’s important to clarify that CEJA’s implementation falls outside the alleged bribery window from 2011 to 2019. The government’s allegations center around the 2011 “Smart Grid” legislation and especially the 2016 Future Energy Jobs Act. (In other words: FEJA sent people to jail, CEJA means you might get a hundred bucks back.)

But in macro, we have a larger story reinforcing running themes of Eye On Illinois commentary: One is that when ethics laws don’t explicitly ban certain conduct, the result is inviting the powerful to dance in the gray areas until jurists ultimately define the actual rules.

And two, the ordinary people who just need the lights on and the refrigerator running – customers in a throttled marketplace – are almost always last in line behind (in some order) utility executives, shareholders, elected officials, lobbyists and cronies. We have the edge in raw numbers, but severely lack influence.

Is there reason for optimism that these themes may not always be true?

• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.