Some news on the inflation excluding, excluding, excluding, excluding, excluding, excluding ..... front:
Thursday, January 29, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Gas rates going up Sunday
By JOHN G. EDWARDS
REVIEW-JOURNAL
The average residential customers using 5,800 cubic feet of natural gas per month will see their monthly bill jump $2.76 to $49.34 starting Sunday.
The Public Utilities Commission on Wednesday voted 2-0 to approve a 5.5 percent interim increase in Southwest Gas Corp. rates while the agency considers a larger request intended to offset increased natural gas prices. PUC Chairman Don Soderberg was ill and didn't attend the meeting, but he wrote the draft order calling for approval of the rate increase.
Roger Buehrer, a spokesman for Southwest Gas, said it was probably better to raise rates now, rather than wait and allow interest costs to add to a future rate increase.
Because of higher gas use during the winter, the typical residential winter bill in Southern Nevada will be $49.34 as a result of the rate change.
In approving the agreement, the PUC directed Southwest Gas to stop a consumer refund that was part of a previous gas rate case. Southwest said it already had refunded the amount owed to customers through lower rates.
Among those agreeing to the interim rate adjustment were state consumer advocate Tim Hay and the PUC staff.
Hay said the settlement dealt mainly with an accounting adjustment, but he said his office, the Bureau of Consumer Protection, continues to review Southwest Gas' pending adjustment case.
"We will be looking at the company's purchasing practices to reduce exposure of the company and consumers to the volatility of gas prices," he said.
The 5.5 percent increase will decrease the amount that Southwest Gas is seeking in a pending purchased gas adjustment case. With this interim rate adjustment, the increase being sought by Southwest Gas dropped to about 20 percent from 25.5 percent earlier, the company said.
The company last raised residential rates in December, when its rates were increased 11 percent.
These rate cases, so-called purchased gas adjustments, allow Southwest Gas to recover increases in the price it pays for gas, but it also permits the utility to grant rate decreases when prices drop.
Southwest Gas doesn't own any gas wells of its own and purchases the fuel for distribution through its gas lines.
Of the last eight purchased gas adjustments, four have been decreases, Buehrer said.
"There have been some huge swings," he said said.
Two rate cases in 2001 resulted in a total increase of 40 percent in rates, but rate cases in late 2001 and 2002 resulted in a 31 percent decrease.
These numbers, he said, "demonstrate just how volatile this market has been."
The PUC decision also affects rates for Southwest Gas customers in Northern Nevada. Their rates will rise 4.8 percent to a year-round average of $60.50, but the typical resident's winter bill will rise 5.1 percent to $92.34. |
