Dateline: October 21, 2004

GreenLight warns of higher natural gas prices

By Roger Estlack, Clarendon Enterprise

If you thought last winter’s natural gas bill was high, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

GreenLight Gas General Manager Brent Wheeler says because of uncertainty in an unregulated market, consumers need to be prepared to pay an extra 12 to 17 percent for natural gas this winter.

“This will have a huge impact on consumers – small businesses, schools, seniors on fixed incomes, everybody,” Wheeler said. “I’m strongly encouraging people to take energy saving tips and to let us get them set up on a 12-month average billing plan.”

Wheeler says his company has no control over the rising cost. A consumer’s gas bill is made up of three components, and only two are regulated (the pipeline transportation and local distribution cost).  The actual commodity cost is unregulated and varies according to market conditions.

“Because natural gas is a commodity, GreenLight Gas has no control over the price it must pay for natural gas,” Wheeler said. “The price we charge the customer is the same price we must pay.”

With natural gas being traded in the free market, Wheeler says prices should be coming down given current conditions, but that’s not what is happening.

“The industry reports that inventories are full. There’s more in storage than at any time in the last five years,” he said. “You would think that prices would come down, but instead they are tracking the price of crude oil.”

Wheeler said he favors having the federal government step in to regulate the price of wholesale natural gas, noting GreenLight’s cost for gas has increased from $1.75 per MCF in 2001 to an expected high of $8 per MCF this winter.

“I’d like to see these consumers protected and not see quadruple increases in prices for energy,” he said. “I want people to stay warm.”

But Wheeler doesn’t see any relief coming any time soon.

“I don’t believe these high natural gas prices are just a temporary phenomenon,” Wheeler said. “I believe for the next two or three years at least, we’re going to see very high natural gas prices until there is a reasonable supply available.”

In the meantime, Wheeler urges people to call GreenLight at 259-1444 and get set up on 12-month average billing to ease the pressure on consumers’ budgets by spreading the high cost of heating over the entire year.

GreenLight Gas is a Not-for-Profit natural gas utility that is owned by two electric cooperatives, Lighthouse Electric Cooperative of Floydada and Greenbelt Electric Cooperative of Wellington, who are also Non-Profit.  GreenLight Gas’s mission is in providing the best service at the lowest possible price.