February 5, 2008
Why I’ll have gas next winter
It looks like I’ll be cranking the heat up come next winter. The Illinois Commerce Commission today approved a rate increase from the friendly neighborhood gas company and gave them four years to pilot a new system where customers pay a set fee based on expected, rather than actual gas used.
Coverage in the Chicago Tribune explains that the gas companies will be able to charge a fee during extremely warm months to bring the bill up to a baseline, which the gas company says will be offset by credits during unusually cold months, and the rationale behind the concept certainly is novel. According to the Trib;
“The goal of the utilities is to guarantee a cash flow that has been upset by recent mild winters as well as energy conservation.
Under the proposal, consumers would be charged a new set fee on expected, rather than actual, usage, giving the utilities a more predictable revenue stream to maintain an infrastructure that dates back to the introduction of natural gas lamps on Chicago streets more than 150 years ago.”
So, if I read that correctly, global warming and the energy conservation being undertaken to prevent more of that warming are both responsible for the gas companies’ declining revenues and now they need the extra cash to update the infrastructure they’ve ignored in the past. To remedy this, customers might pay for unused gas during warm months and be encouraged to use more gas when it’s cold out.
It’s almost as if the gas company is betting on global warming and hedging their bet with incentives for people to burn more gas. I’m not really sure how the public’s interests fit into this, but I’m sure the big one-time rebate check I have coming from the feds will be enough to offset this increase and the rest of the local tax and fee hikes that keep on rolling in.