Rising Energy Costs Hurting Poor

By Chelsea J. Carter Associated Press Writer

Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2001; 6:14 a.m. EST

Fair use for educational purposes only!

SUN CITY, Calif. –– Eighty-nine-year-old Dorothy Moore sat in her living room with the lights off, wiping away tears as she clutched a natural gas bill stamped "past due."

A self-proclaimed penny-pincher who lives on an $826-a-month Social Security check, Moore said this was the first time in her life she did not have enough money to pay her bill on time.

"I sent them what I could last month. But then I got another bill and I couldn't pay that amount either. Now it's just piling up. ... It's $106," she said. "I'm worried if I don't pay it all, they'll turn my heat off."

As officials in California wrestle with a power shortage and the possibility of raising electricity rates, many of the state's poor and elderly are struggling with a different problem: some of the highest natural gas prices in the nation.

The more than 9 million consumers whose homes are heated by natural gas have seen their bills soar by 50 percent or more since December.

Under deregulation, the state's two largest utilities, Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison, are blocked from passing along the higher costs of producing electricity to consumers.

But natural gas providers, who do not face such constraints, said they have no other choice but to pass on to consumers the rising costs brought on by a cold winter and short supplies.

For people like Moore, that means a monthly gas bill that once averaged around $32 – before the wholesale price of natural gas reached levels four times higher than a year ago – is now coming in at near $80.

"A lot of people don't realize the bills haven't gone up since 1996," said Denise King, spokeswoman for Sempra Energy, which owns Southern California Gas Company and San Diego Gas and Electric. "If you look at it overall, it isn't any more exorbitant than what the rest of the country is facing."

While natural gas prices have leveled off some, the March futures contract closed Monday at $5.70 per 1,000 cubic feet, down from recent levels as high as $9.

To ease the burden for those on fixed incomes, the utility companies are promoting assistance programs that can cut bills by 15 percent.

Nearly 2 million people, about 60 percent of those qualified, already receive some type of assistance to pay their utility bill, said Armando Rendon of the state Public Utilities Commission. That number has increased a third since last year.

A survey by the American Association of Retired People found a middle income family spends about 6 percent of its monthly income on utilities whereas fixed- and low-income families spend about 23 percent.

Thousands of telephone calls have poured into state and federal agencies and nonprofit organizations from people searching for help to pay their natural gas bills.

"People are seeing their bills and all of a sudden they're in a panic because they are used to paying a certain amount and ordinarily they can budget for it," said Gerald Brown of the Community Services Department of San Bernardino, which helps people apply for the federal Home Energy Assistance Program.

In nearby Orange County, 53-year-old Lynda Minkoff's natural gas bill doubled to nearly $50. "Twenty dollars is a lot of money. It's a tank of gas for work. It's a couple of telephone calls to my son. It's extra groceries," she said. "I'll probably put in a few more hours at work to make up the difference."

But for the state's elderly, putting in extra hours isn't possible. William Dietsch, 70, said he has had to dip into his savings to pay his $187 natural gas bill, which jumped from $100 in December.

"It used to be I had money left at the end of the month," Dietsch said. "Now I have more month than money left."

On the Net:

California Public Utilities Commission: http://www.cpuc.ca.gov

© Copyright 2001 The Associated Press

-- Swissrose (cellier@azstarnet.com), February 06, 2001