Cascade Natural Gas Proposing Rate Increase, Public Hearing January 2nd

With WA State making it increasingly difficult for natural gas providers, largely due to the Climate Commitment Act., many providers are looking at rate increases.

  Cascade Natural Gas hearing coming January 2nd.

According to Cascade Natural Gas and the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (WUTC) January 2nd there will be a public hearing on the proposed rate hike.

   The hearing can be attended virtually, it will be held at 6 PM on January 2nd, Thursday.  Cascade says some of the rate will be used to replace aging pipes, but a lot of it is what are called "pass through" costs due to increasing costs of gas. Cascade says these are not profit-generating, but simply passed along.

The rate increase being proposed is 15.89 percent, for the average customer who uses around 54 therms a month, the increase will be about $9.78 per month. A therm is the equivalent of 100 cubic feet or 100,000 BTU's of gas.

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The WUTC hearing will be to gather comment and input on the proposed hike. According to information released by Cascade:

•" Purchased Gas Adjustment (PGA): Cascade requested an increase to rates to recover the cost of natural gas. Gas costs are a straight pass through of costs, where Cascade does not earn a profit on these costs. For gas costs alone, the average residential customer using 54 therms per month will see a bill increase of $9.78 per month or 10.67 percent more. The proposed rate increase is primarily due to an increase in wholesale natural gas costs above the level presently included in rates."

Cascade, headquartered in Kennewick, serves 300,000 customers in WA, and OR, of  those 227,000 are in 67 communities in WA.