Rate hike looming for natural gas

[projekktor id=’11916′]

(Update)

You may want to turn down the thermostat — and flick off the fireplace if you use natural gas. It may be cold — but there’s some heated reaction tonight to a plan that would boost the average gas bill by 400-dollars a year.

There’s no doubt about it — it’s been a miserable winter. Long, and bitterly cold. And now — to add insult to seeming injury — get ready, to pay for it. Enbridge Energy has applied to hike the price of natural gas — by 40 percent. Why?

Enbridge video: “A big cold snap means a greater number of homes and businesses are using more natural gas to stay warm. When demand goes up, the price can rise.”

Call it ‘gas prices 101′. Enbridge has already rolled out a helpful video on line, to justify its’ rate request. But judging from the reaction on Twitter, customers are not taking it well:

Take Paul Gilmore for example who tweeted: — “40 percent! Are you kidding me?” Apparently not.

Enbridge video: “Our natural gas prices are based on the forecast of market prices for the next 12 months. Predicting the future can be a little tricky.”

In other words, the Enbridge forecasters didn’t see this frigid winter coming. But that will be a hard excuse to sell, to its two million customers — like Jeff: “We have had cold winters before. What’s next? Summer was too hot this year? Killing the middle class.”

And indeed — those who heat their homes and water with natural gas, use gas appliances or fireplaces — will be particularly hard hit by the proposed hike:

Sam wonders in the tweet: “If this is actually true, do you have any idea how badly this will impact many people?”

And DKB — is a little more blunt: “Greedy jerks — will raise your gas bill by 40% in April. That’s over $400 dollars a year!”

The gas company video maintains: “Our rates are fair and reasonable.”

But the backlash has already begun.

A couple of things we should point out. Enbridge is not the only gas company applying to raise rates. They were just the first out of the gate. Union Gas too — will ask for an increase. And gas providers aren’t the only ones raising rates — most propane and oil customers have already seen a price hike this winter. Those price hikes are not a done deal yet — they must still be approved by the Ontario Energy Board, which regulates the price. But there’s not much time to lobby the government to hold the line — with an April first deadline.

And finally, even with the increase — it won’t be the worst price we’ve ever paid here in Ontario. The proposed hike would boost the price to about 20 cents per cubic meter. But in 2004 — we were paying 27 cents per cubic meter, for natural gas.