Atco to reveal gas rate for rest of winter

Journal Staff The Edmonton Journal

Homeowners find out today how high their natural gas bills will soar during the rest of the winter months.

Atco Gas, supplier to 815,000 customers (about 80 per cent of Alberta's total), said earlier this week it would submit a new rate application Wednesday to the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board.

But spokesperson Carol Benoit said preparation of the application took longer than expected and the paperwork would be filed with the EUB today.

Atco buys its gas on the fluctuating spot market rather than on set contracts. The EUB permits Atco to pass on changes in those wholesale fuel costs. A year ago, Alberta gas was selling for about $2.60 a gigajoule. This week, it is around $11.

Atco had said in mid-December it would raise its winter rate in northern Alberta from $5.77 a gigajoule to $9.97, a 72-per-cent jump that would add $52 a month to the bill for a typical home. (A typical home uses 150 gigajoules a year.) But vice-president Jerome Engler said this week Atco might delay that price hike and distribute it over later months.

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news1/stories/010118/5020684.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), January 18, 2001

Answers

I closed my eyes as I opened this thread, Martin. We use natural gas for home heating and for many major household appliances (because it is so cheap, its promoters said--hell, some of us even have natural gas barbecues!), and the cost has more than doubled in the past few months. The next price increase will be a real killer! Such an irony--Ontario locked-in at a price that now allows its consumers to chuckle at the high rates paid in Alberta, which sits on fields of natural gas.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), January 18, 2001.

Sorry, Rachel.....Same story different source.

Heating bills in Alberta will more than double, says gas company

CAROL HARRINGTON

CALGARY (CP) - Gas pains for Alberta residents are about to get worse, with an announcement Friday that natural gas bills will more than double this year. "This is a time of great turmoil in energy prices," said Dick Frey, managing director of utilities for ATCO Gas. "It's not just here, it's everywhere."

The gas company is increasing its winter rate by about 125 per cent to 810,000 Alberta customers, saying the hike is necessary to recover skyrocketing costs of buying the fuel.

The average February gas bill is expected to rise to $275 from $125, but the bill for a detached home would be substantially higher.

Consumer groups say the rate increase presents a significant burden, especially to seniors and others on fixed incomes.

"It's going to create hardships for them," said Jeff Jodoin of the Consumers Coalition of Alberta. "We would hope the government will provide greater rebates to ease this burden."

Huge increases in natural gas bills have become common across North America in past months.

ATCO employees have been busy fielding thousands of daily phone calls from frustrated customers who want either an explanation for the soaring bills or simply can't pay them. One Calgary radio station recently started a popular raffle that offers to pay the winner's monthly gas bills.

"At times one wonders whether anyone knows what's going on," Frey told a news conference. "Our customers are confused and concerned, and we share that concern."

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), January 19, 2001.