Some SC gas customers saw bills double after deep freeze, leading to claims of price gouging

CLINTON — A public utility’s last-minute rate hike led to a hasty rebuke from customers after that increase, coupled with the recent bitter cold, caused bills to be sometimes hundreds of dollars higher than they expected. Some are even alleging price gouging — accusations officials quickly dismissed.

The Clinton-Newberry Natural Gas Authority says it was just passing along the exorbitant costs it had to pay when forecasts changed and it had to navigate a stretched-thin supply while demand skyrocketed. Per-unit costs soared, with spot purchases running as high as 16 times what CNNGA usually pays.

The local utility — which serves parts of Laurens, Newberry and Spartanburg counties — cautioned that other gas authorities might have to do the same.

This comes during a time when national usage soared as ice and snow fell across much of the country. The U.S. Energy Information Administration said the week ending Jan. 30 had the biggest drawdown in natural gas stores the nation has seen since it started releasing the Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report in 2010.

CNNGA bills reviewed by The Post and Courier showed customers faced charges at times hundreds of dollars more than usual, with some topping $400 or $500.

One was more than $700, with Newberry resident Kimberly Amick Smith seeing a jump of more than $250 from the prior month.

“This degree of increase does not seem legally or ethically valid,” she said.

General Manager Jimmy Capps said the more than 14,000 homes and businesses CNNGA serves are seeing a “dollar-for-dollar pass-through.” In this case, it was a roughly 50 percent increase in rate on average — but only for this billing cycle.

Many learned of the jump in price from friends or online as news trickled out. Jennifer Hill, who lives in Clinton, said she saw social media chatter about higher gas bills Feb. 11 late in the afternoon, then got an automated call that night from the utility warning about the temporary rate hike.