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The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio approved a radical restructuring of Columbia's delivery rates that will triple the monthly residential service charge by next winter from $6.50 to $12.16 effective immediately and to $17.81 next December. But the plan will eliminate the basic usage-based delivery rate, from 14 cents per 100 cubic feet to 8 cents per Ccf, effective immediately, and to zero in December 2009.
The changes apply only to Columbia's price for deliverying gas, which makes up about 20 percent of an average customer's bill. The rest of the bill is for the gas itself, on which Columbia makes no profit.
The rate change will ultimately have little effect on households burning an average amount of gas but raise delivery costs for those who conserve and give a price break to the prodigious users.
Consumer groups, led by Ohio Consumers' Counsel Janine Migden-Ostrander, have opposed the flat fee, arguing that it hurts those who are trying to conserve. Columbia has countered that the delivery charges constitute a small share of an average bill and consumers still have a reason to conserve.
Consumer conservation efforts have reduced average consumption here and across the nation by about 30 percent, cutting into utility delivery revenues. The PUCO reasoned that a utility's costs -- salaries and maintenance -- are fixed whether consumers buy a little or a lot of gas and that increasing the monthly service charge made more sense than increasing consumption-based rates.
The decision also:
Authorizes Columbia to tack on additional flat monthly charges to pay for its pipeline and meter replacement program. Beginning in May 2009, the utility can add up to $1.10 to the 31 cents per month it now charges to repair a portion of residential service lines connecting to the meter. In May 2010, Columbia can add up to another $1.10 per month, for a total of $2.51. In the following three years, it can add up to $1 additional to a maximum of $5.21 per month by 2013 -- fees in addition to the flat monthly service charge of $17.81.
Commits Columbia to spending $24.9 million on new conservation programs over three years.
Hooray for all of us who have tried to be a little greener like we were told to.
I'm just cranking my heat up to 90 - what do I care about conservation, right?
My house is at 55 degrees when I'm at work and when I'm sleeping. I keep the thermostat at 66 (compromise temperature with the spouse) when we're at home and awake. So I'm doing a good thing, right? I saw my gas bill budget plan monthly costs drop. I'm conserving energy, right? So clearly I set myself up as a sucker and Columbia's going to FIND A WAY to make me pay. Further evidence that corporations and the government are not acting my my best interests, but only in their own.
I have gas heating but electric hot water so I only use natural gas for 6 or 7 months a year. So during the summer months I would get bills for $6.50 but now I'm going to get them for $17.81. Can I have my gas turned off every year for the summer and turned back on in the winter?
Can someone explain to me why the gas company is getting an increase put in when Natural Gas is down over 50% from where it was just 6 months ago?
where is our state politician helping out the taxspayers?
This is crap...........
where is our state politician helping out the taxspayers?
This is crap...........
OK so WHEN do our elected officials start working for us?
"Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms (of government) those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny"
Thomas Jefferson
Ok - while I never like price increases - I have to say the delivery charge is NOT related to usage or the price of natural gas. This is the same for any commodity like water, etc. You still need to conserve so that the demand goes down so the price for the commodity goes with it and your bill will go down except for the delivery fee. The infrastructure still has to be there regardless of how much you use unless you switch to something that can replace natural gas. The only probelm is when the cost of the commodity is covering part of the cost of the delivery infrastructer. If this is the case then the less you use pushes the price up to cover the fixed costs that you have to cover regardless.
So Columbia Gas basically wants us to use more gas so we save. But this will help deplete the gas resources that they have in turn jacking up the price in the future. Makes corporate sense to me. Take from the poor, give to the rich.
superlib
sure, they do it on the eastside all the time. They crank the heat to 80 all winter when it cant be turned off, gets turned off in summer , then turned back on in winter with a hundred dollar turn on fee and a promise to pay their bill.
Guess what , they dont, in turn passing on costs to citizens who pay their bills and pushing the cost of delivery fees up to cover the losses these business's take
So they are making less profit because people are using less gas. What's the logical solution? Raise the delivery costs, of course! That way, you get screwed no matter how much gas you use or dont use.
Conserve and try to be greener, and get screwed anyway. Lovely.
Just like gasoline prices, natural gas prices are nothing more than a big lie on the American people by the powers-to-be.
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