Gas bills may give California consumers shivers

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

| |

Gas bills may give consumers shivers

Cooler winter, high prices mean PG&E charges will average up to 50% higher than a year ago.

By Carrie Peyton The Sacramento Bee

(Published November 17, 2000) SACRAMENTO -- The season's first snap of bitter cold will deliver an extra sting this year.

Watch for it in your mailbox, in natural gas or propane bills that could run 30%, 50% or even more than last year. The only people spared -- at least for now -- are those who heat with electricity, and PG&E is fighting for permission to ding them retroactively. Even firewood could be a little higher than a year ago.

This is no time for a cold spell.

But much of California has been shivering with below-normal temperatures for days, and federal energy officials are bracing for a cooler-than-average winter nationwide.

It's enough to make sweaters and blankets look chic.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. is reminding Northern Californians that conservation can help. PG&E advises turning down thermostats, changing furnace filters and updating caulking and weather stripping.

But the cold reality is this:

"Gas prices have been high almost this whole year, but customers probably haven't noticed it because they haven't been using their heat," said utility spokeswoman Staci Homrig.

In November, PG&E charges will average about 35% higher than they did one year ago, and the difference could rise to 50% by January -- just as the utility forecast seven weeks ago, she said.

In the Sacramento region, where the average household has used about 70 therms of natural gas each January for the past four years, the average January bill could increase from about $47 to $67, PG&E predicted in September.

Spot market prices have surged since then, but that isn't expected to have a major impact on household bills because PG&E gets less than 10% of its gas through last-minute transactions, Dennis Gee, PG&E gas procurement manager, said Thursday.

But the higher short-term prices have worried an industry that had been sounding alarms since summer. In July, the American Gas Association said this winter was going to be an especially costly heating season because of high demand coupled with several years of limited drilling for new gas wells.

Since then, "the fundamental that has changed is ... the price of natural gas on the futures market has reached an all-time high," said association spokeswoman Daphne Magnuson.

Both her group and the federal Energy Information Association are predicting the supply crunch will last this winter and perhaps the next, and then prices will drop again.

http://www.fresnobee.com/localnews/story/0,1724,213808,00.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), November 17, 2000


Moderation questions? read the FAQ