Remember when deregulation was going to save you money on your electric bill?

Well if you live in Illinois you can forget that one now.

ComEd rates will rise because a nine-year rate freeze is ending. Starting in 1997, rates were rolled back 20 percent and frozen as a way to ease the transition for 3.7 million residential and small-business customers to a deregulated electricity market.

Rise? Twenty-four percent. Tomorrow. Or else.

ComEd claims it could go bankrupt if it's not allowed to recover the new, higher costs of power. It says a continued rate freeze could lead to brownouts, slower repairs, layoffs and a downturn in the state's economy.

So get those Christmas lights turned off, says the Chicago Sun-Times.