Denver: tility hikes seen hurting working poor, small businesses--40-49% increases predicted

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Grassroots Information Coordination Center (GICC) : One Thread

Denver: tility hikes seen hurting working poor, small businesses--40-49% increases predicted

DENVER (AP) - The effects will be widespread, but energy experts say small businesses and the working poor may be hit particularly hard this winter by rising utility costs.

Public Service Co. of Colorado filed with state regulators last week for a natural-gas price increase that would send winter heating bills soaring. The utility wants to pass rising market prices on to customers

Public Service predicts that in January, typically the coldest month of the year, the average home heating bill will rise 40 percent over January 2000.

For business customers, the estimated increase is 49 percent.

"I'm pretty concerned about that," said Ron Montoya, president of Denver manufacturing company PlastiComm Telecommunications, whose gas bill would rise from $3,500 a month to a projected $5,215.

PlastiComm's six warehouse-style buildings in northwest Denver have loading-dock doors that must stay open most of the day. That makes heating the buildings a major task in the winter, Montoya said.

Some homeowners and renters are also worried.

"I'm really afraid of what's going to hit us this winter," said Angela Dotey, a single mother of two young children in Edgewater. "I'm going to have to cut back somewhere, but I don't know where."

Dotey applied for financial assistance from the Colorado Energy Assistance Foundation, a group that pays a portion of monthly utility bills for qualifying low-income families.

But the insurance-company data entry worker learned she makes slightly too much money to qualify for payment assistance. The maximum annual income to qualify for aid is $26,184 for a family of three.

"I live paycheck to paycheck right now, without big heating bills," Dotey said. "I don't know what I'm going to do this winter."

Cases like Dotey's are troubling to Karen Brown, executive director of the Colorado Energy Assistance Foundation.

The past two winters have been mild, and many families with marginal incomes have been able to handle utility bills, she said, warning that this year could be different.

Many families that would qualify for financial help are unaware of the programs, she said, while others make too much to qualify.

Last year, 2,667 Colorado households that applied for bill-paying help were rejected because they did not meet income guidelines.

This year, working poor is defined as an individual with a full-time job paying $7.42 an hour or less, or a family of four with two wage-earners making no more than $31,448 combined.

The average winter-season benefit also has been raised from $324 per family last year to a projected $450 this year.

For businesses, financial grants don't exist. "Small businesses are the first ones to feel the real impact," said Chris Chavez, Denver-based spokesman for the U.S. Small Business Administration.

He said companies' energy problems are compounded by the increasing cost of wages and benefits as well as other costs such as transportation and debt.

http://www.trib.com/HOMENEWS/STATE/UtilityBills.html

Posted at 6:14 a.m. PDT Monday, September 25, 2000

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), September 25, 2000


Moderation questions? read the FAQ