WASHINGTON, D.C. — According to a study published last month by the Institute for Policy Studies, nearly two dozen profitable public U.S. utility companies paid no federal income taxes last year, and the utility industry overall has the lowest effective federal tax rate of any business sector.

AmerenThe “Utilities Pay Up” report concludes that domestic utility companies “have become expert tax dodgers at the federal and state levels.”

The study shows that last year Ameren Illinois and ComEd had pre-tax profits in of $217 million and $706 million, respectively.

With a pre-tax income of $948 million, Ameren received a $2 million federal income tax refund and a $4 million state income tax refund.

Illinois has a corporate income tax of 7.75 percent. Had Ameren Illinois and ComEd paid the full rate, the state government would have had an additional $65 million in revenue last year, according to IPS.

“This revenue could’ve covered the cost of weatherizing 13,800 low-income residences in single and multi-family buildings, reaching 17 percent of all low-income families in Illinois,” the report reads. “Sliced another way, the money could’ve created 1,000 jobs, 400 directly through clean energy projects and another 600 indirectly at suppliers and through economic ripple effects.”