Gas bills jump 62% Rising rates, bitter cold hit Alagasco customers 01/05/01 DAVID WHITE News staff writer

MONTGOMERY - Natural gas bills for customers of Alabama Gas Corp. have increased by 62 percent over last year, and customers are complaining and asking for help.

Hundreds of people, stung by the rising rates and increased gas use in a bitterly cold December, have called Alagasco in recent days to protest high heating bills, company spokeswoman Susan Delenne said Thursday.

"Our phones are ringing," she said. "We're getting so many calls that we're actually taking some of our employees who work in other areas of the company and they're being sent over to help with these customer contacts."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Speak your mind in the forum --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

About 200 people seeking federal aid to help pay their heating bills stood in line Thursday at the Jefferson County Committee for Economic Opportunity office in Ensley, said JCCEO energy coordinator Dorothy Crosby. One person seeking help saw his bill jump from $80 last month to $280 this month, she said. Seasonal payments typically range from $60 to $190, she said.

"It's scary," Ms. Crosby said.

Alagasco is passing on to cus­ tomers the higher wholesale cost it's paying natural gas sup pliers, said Mrs. Delenne, add­ ing that the company isn't mak ing a dime off the increases.

Wholesale prices have sky rocketed nationwide, she said. Cold weather has raised de mand, but supplies are tight be cause low prices for natural gas in the late 1990s didn't encour­ age companies to drill for more.

"It's a national issue. We are paying the highest prices ever at the wellhead for gas," Mrs. Del­ enne said. "We know that sooner or later there will be a downward trend to these prices. But what we are expecting is, they will never be as low as they were two years ago."

Alagasco on Tuesday notified the Alabama Public Service Commission that because of its higher wholesale costs, it was raising its prices effective Jan. 1 by 18.5 percent. That raised the annual cost of gas for an average residential customer from $865.22 last month to $1,025.26 this month. Alabama Gas for years has said a typical resi­ dential customer uses 75,000 cubic feet of natural gas each year. Last year that amount of gas cost $633; two years ago it cost $600.

The Public Service Commis sion since 1978 has let Alagasco automatically pass on to its cus­ tomers its higher or lower wholesale costs of natural gas. The three-member PSC doesn't vote on the increases or de creases, though its staff does au­ dit the company's filings, said PSC spokeswoman Karen Gas­ ton.

Alagasco, citing rising whole­ sale costs, raised its rates last year in May, June, July, October and December before this week's increase.

"It's something almost every state is dealing with, the cost of wholesale natural gas," said Ms. Gaston. "We're concerned about the impact on consumers."

Alagasco has 473,000 resi­ dential and business customers in central and North Alabama. It is the largest natural gas utility in the state.

Alagasco President Gary Youngblood said increased use in cold weather is still the big­ gest reason for higher heating bills, despite recent jumps in the cost of gas.

"So if you are using more gas at higher prices, bills will natu­ rally increase," he said.

"I wish we could tell custom­ ers when they could expect some relief, but we do not know the answer to that," Youngblood said. "We know there is proba­ bly no relief for this heating sea­ son."

He said he hopes recent in­ creases in natural gas produc­ tion, spurred by higher prices, will decrease costs by the end of this year.

http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/Jan2001/5-gas05.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), January 09, 2001