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WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) – Natural gas bills 10, 20 or even 25 times higher than normal: this is what some companies and cities claim to be facing. The question is, what does this mean for individual customers who have spent the past two weeks needing the extra energy to stay warm in one of the coldest expanses Kansas has seen in decades.
It is no exaggeration to say that gas suppliers pay an astronomical amount for natural gas. A unit that sold for about $ 3 less than two weeks ago is now selling for over $ 400. These figures come from the town of Winfield. Winfield City Manager Taggart Wall said the city has a budget of just over $ 1.5 million a year for natural gas. Right now they’re looking at an invoice for about six days, just over $ 10 million.
Wall said the price of natural gas Winfield purchases from the Kansas Municipal Gas Agency has skyrocketed.
“The bill for an average customer will be somewhere in the range of $ 2,500, you know, just for their house,” Wall said.
Because the price increase has happened so recently, residential customers have yet to receive invoices reflecting these prices, but the fear is that they are coming.
“It’s definitely not something we see every day. It’s pretty unprecedented right now and natural gas prices aren’t regulated, so we really don’t have much control, ”said Linda Berry of the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC).
The KCC regulates utility tariffs in the state. Gas suppliers like Black Hills Energy, Kansas Gas Service and others have been asked to delay issuing these bills to customers until a plan to mitigate their impact can be achieved. It is not yet clear what this plan will look like.
“At this point, there’s ‘we can’t give you exact numbers,’” Berry said. “I know it creates a lot of anxiety in people when it is unknown, but just know that the KCC and utilities will work together to come up with a plan.”
But this plan will be of no use to towns like Winfield as it does not fall under the jurisdiction of the KCC.
“It’s really about our community. We have to survive. It’s life or death for business, ”Wall said.
Eyewitness News contacted Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt to see if his office has received any complaints about soaring natural gas prices.
Schmidt’s office released a statement saying, “The Attorney General is concerned about these shocking price hikes. The regulation of natural gas is complex, with some exclusively federal authority and some jurisdiction left to the states. We assess whether the law assigns a role to our office in this way. “
Black Hills Energy did not return our requests for comment and Kansas Gas Service said it was working with KCC to remedy the situation.
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