Customers push back against gas rate hike request

KANAWHA COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) — Mountaineer Gas customers say the most recent bills are the highest they’ve ever seen.

“We’ve put in two gas fireplaces, and those gas fireplaces ran but it was just under $300, and we don’t heat the house with gas, we heat the house with electric,” Elizabeth Neal said.

Mountaineer Gas is asking the Public Service Commission for an 8.4 percent, or $26.8 million annual, increase in revenue. Elizabeth Neal said she wants to avoid this at all costs, already seeing impacts on the community.

“Kanawha City actually is an area that has a lot of middle class to upper middle class young families with many kids, and so even though our children are raised and gone, it does impact us and it will impact all these young families,” Neal said.

Kanawha County commissioners are asking the PSC to deny the request and say rates have gone up more than 34 percent in a decade.

Neal said utility costs are especially hard on her children with a house full of kids, but it’s also impossible for her to ignore.

“I still work a little bit part time. My husband retired, and he is trying to pick back up one day a month, so we really thought we could go into retirement, and it would be fine but we’ve kind of decided that we just need to work a little bit more,” she said.

Some customers using government assistance for housing said rates are simply unaffordable.

County Commission President Ben Salango said, “Kanawha County families are experiencing rate-hike fatigue.”

He went on to say, “Mountaineer Gas customers have seen repeated increases in a short period of time, and this latest request comes before people have had a meaningful opportunity to absorb the rate increases that have already been approved. At some point, the cumulative impact becomes unreasonable, especially for an essential service like natural gas.”

Commissioner Natalie Tennant said, “We recognize the importance of safe and reliable infrastructure, but that responsibility must be balanced with affordability.”

The Kanawha County Commission’s letter is officially part of the case requesting the rate hike. If the PSC doesn’t deny the request, commissioners are asking to substantially reduce any extra rate relief.

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