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Advocates push to repeal natural gas infrastructure surcharge

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Illinois

* Center Square…

Advocates and Illinois state lawmakers are making a push to end a gas utility surcharge that allows companies to raise customer heating bills in order to pay for infrastructure projects.

The surcharge, known as the Qualified Infrastructure Plant (QIP), became law in 2013 after similar legislation was passed for utility giant Commonwealth Edison.

Supporters of Senate Bill 570 and House Bill 3941, which seeks to repeal the surcharge law, include AARP Illinois, the Citizens Utility Board and Illinois Public Interest Research Group. Members of the three groups held a news conference Monday to urge the General Assembly to end the QIP surcharge. They say the law allowed heating bills to skyrocket while lining the pockets of major utilities.

“The General Assembly was told the special ability to raise bills was needed for safety, that spending would be limited and utility bill impacts would be kept low,” said Rep. Joyce Mason, D-Gurnee, chief sponsor of the House bill. “None of these things are true today.”

The utilities claim the surcharge is a necessity to pay for pipe replacement and other work. While everyone agrees old pipes should be replaced, consumer advocates argue the utilities should do it in a responsible way that doesn’t cause hardship for their customers.

Bryan McDaniel, CUB director of governmental affairs, said by law, utilities are already required to keep the system safe and reliable.

“This legislation will not shut down infrastructure spending as the utilities will claim,” McDaniel said. “It will simply transition it to traditional regulatory oversight.” […]

“The utilities are now spending money on things like installing new meters and replacing perfectly safe pipes and we’re all getting stuck with the bill,” said Mason.

* From Nicor…

Nicor Gas customers expect and deserve natural gas service that’s safe and reliable every day, including during extreme weather such as the polar vortexes and unexpected crises like the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Increased demand stemming from people spending more time and using more natural gas at home, dropping temperatures and economic inflation, have caused natural gas prices to rise around the world and right here in Illinois. Nicor Gas cannot make a profit on these increased prices and instead the market price is passed on to the customer through a highly regulated rate process. This natural gas cost currently makes up about 70% of the total charges Nicor Gas residential customers see on their bills.

Since 2014, the Qualified Infrastructure Plant (QIP) has helped Nicor Gas invest over $2.5 billion in infrastructure improvement including replacing approximately 990 miles of natural gas main, 111,250 natural gas service lines and another 187 improvement projects across 100 communities are scheduled for this year. These improvements along with Nicor Gas’ storage facility reserves have allowed the company to deliver natural gas safely and effectively to our 2.2 million customers.

As Illinois’ largest natural gas distributor, Nicor Gas is committed to providing clean, safe, reliable and affordable natural gas service to the 650 communities it serves.

* Nicor sent along a copy of a typical bill…

* And some nicely timed news. Here’s CBS 2…

If you’re a Nicor Gas customer, the cost of gas is going down slightly for you. […]

Tuesday, the cost will go down. Nicor’s monthly gas cost will now be 55 cents per therm price.

That’s 10% less than January’s per therm price, which was 61 cents.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 9:26 am

Comments

people spending more time and using more natural gas at home

Which should be balanced by them spending less time at the office….

Comment by Fav Human Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 9:54 am
Where are all the free market ILGOP types.

Comment by Publius Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 9:59 am
Every year I’ve lived in my current house, I’ve made small incremental improvements for efficiency. The biggest was replacing a 15-yr furnace with a new 98 percent efficient model. But even smaller improvements in other years like putting insulating foam plates *behind* outlet covers made a surprisingly large difference.

If you can, try to add humidity to your house too. A whole house humidifier is best, but even a room size one will work good enough on most days. It will let the house feel warmer without using any extra fuel for the furnace.

My last months gas bill was $91 at a comfortable 73 degrees inside temp.

Comment by TheInvisibleMan Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 10:22 am
I’m very jealous of your HVAC improvements. My bill was $267 for a 2200 sq. foot condo kept at 67 degrees in Chicago. I’ve already been using humidifiers but it seems like I need to dig a bit deeper into some insulation.

Comment by Chicago Blue Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 11:38 am
If this is going to turn into a thread about home HVAC and insulation tips and improvements, I’m all for it.

We have a split level home, so maintaining temperature is always fussy. I tend to keep the thermostat at 62 in the midday when I’m alone working at home and 63-64 at night when everyone’s asleep in the upstairs bedrooms. Still had a bill north of $150 last month, with a 2-year-old furnace and a whole-house humidifier.

Comment by Roadrager Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 11:50 am
because my family leaves all the lights on and furnace cranked, especially when I’m out circulating petitions…

Comment by None of those measures help me, Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 12:21 pm
@- Fav Human - Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 9:54 am:

people spending more time and using more natural gas at home

===Which should be balanced by them spending less time at the office….===

If fewer people are at the office, the office will still need to be heated. The only way the office can lower the heat significantly is if they close completely and everybody works from home that day.

Comment by DuPage Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 12:27 pm
There is a balance between enough humidity to feel comfortable versus what happens to air temperature. As you add humidity to your house, it drops the actual air temperature (think of the “swamp coolers” that have long been used for air conditioning in the desert southwest which drop the air temperature by adding humidity to dry air). So use enough humidification to feel comfortable without adversely increasing your fuel consumption/gas bill as you chill the dry air by humidifying it.

Comment by former southerner Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 12:37 pm
People complain about Nicor, but I really cannot say enough about how much better and cheaper they are than Ameren. I live in a leaky badly insulated 50s rental built on the cheap, and Nicor is still better than my same size well-built house with efficiency upgrades in Ameren country. Plus their billing system and their customer service is just vastly superior. And people calling them when they smell gas always gets a quick and competent response, and never involves fighting with a phone tree for half an hour.

(ComEd is a different story, what a nightmare compared to Ameren. So I guess it balances out.)

Comment by Suburban Mom Tuesday, Feb 1, 22 @ 2:24 pm