ROCKFORD – An email shows that the utility giant ComEd wrote a column for a member of the Illinois House utilities committee to submit to a local newspaper under his own name, the Rockford Register Star reported Wednesday.

Rep. Charles Jefferson submitted a 420-word guest column to the Register Star. In it, the Rockford Democrat urged state regulators to reverse a $168 million cut in customers' energy delivery rates. The column said the loss of money would impede ComEd's efforts to modernize its power grid, creating 2,000 jobs around the state.

The email containing the column included an exchange at the bottom indicating that someone at ComEd did the writing.