Copyright 2000 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Inc.
St.
Louis Post-Dispatch
July 4, 2000, Tuesday, FIVE STAR LIFT EDITION
SECTION: BUSINESS, Pg. E1
LENGTH: 531 words
HEADLINE:
LACLEDE GAS FILES FOR PERMISSION TO RAISE ITS RATES
BYLINE: Repps Hudson; Of The Post-Dispatch
BODY:
As a possible harbinger of
rising natural gas prices this winter, Laclede
Gas Co. has filed for a rate increase that would add $ 4.97 to the typical
homeowner's monthly bill from July through October.
The utility, with
630,000 customers in the St. Louis area, cited the sharply
rising price of wholesale natural gas on national markets.
Since January, the price of 1,000 cubic feet of gas has shot up 88.4 percent, to
$ 4.41 in June, on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In January, the same amount
of gas cost $ 2.34. In June 1999, the price was $ 2.23. Laclede buys gas on the
unregulated national market, but must win approval of the Missouri Public
Service Commission, the state's utility regulatory agency, to charge customers
the higher price.
If approved by the commission next week, as expected,
the rate increase will go into effect during this month and would raise the
monthly bill for a typical area homeowner to $ 31.47.
he typical summer
gas bill for an area homeowner is $ 26.50 a month, said Jane Dotson, a Laclede
spokeswoman.
Higher petroleum-based fuel costs, higher demand, strong
economic growth and lower inventories are all factors in driving up natural gas
prices, said Kevin Kelly, a commission spokesman.
Another element will
be the weather this summer. A long hot spell, which would drive up the use of
electricity generated by natural-gas burning power plants, also would help to
push up natural gas prices this winter.
Doug Micheel, a natural-gas
analyst with the state's Office of Public Counsel, said Monday that Laclede, at
the present prices it charges consumers, is not recovering what it pays for
natural gas. "This rate request is so the winter rates (this fall) will not be
even higher," said Micheel. "I suspect that we will not be opposing this
request."
Other gas companies around the state are expected to follow
Laclede's lead in the next few days because they, too, buy natural gas on the
wholesale market.
Laclede's rate request is an unscheduled filing. Its
next scheduled tariff filing will be in early fall for the winter heating
season, when most homeowners burn natural gas in their furnaces. The winter
season begins Nov. 1 and continues through March 31.
The last time
Laclede filed an unscheduled rate change with the commission was in January
1999, when it sought to cut rates $ 16 a month for the last two months of winter
because of lower costs of wholesale gas.
In December, Laclede asked the
commission for a rate increase to cover its administrative costs, which do not
include what it pays for wholesale natural gas. The commission cut that request
63 percent, leaving the typical household to pay an additional $ 1.50 a month.
The long-term forecast is for much higher natural gas consumption as
more electricity-producing companies build and use efficient, natural
gas-burning generators, which indicates a higher price trend for what has
historically been a low-cost fuel.
The International Energy Agency of
the U.S. Department of Energy estimates that natural gas will provide 33 percent
of the fuel burned worldwide in electric generators by 2020, compared to 29
percent in 1997.
GRAPHIC: GRAPHIC Color graphic/chart
by the Post-Dispatch - Rising wholesale natural gas prices
shows increase
from June 1999 at $ 2.34 per 1000 cubic feet of natural gas to June 2000 at $
4.41 per 1000 cubic feet of natural gas, Source Missouri/Public Service
Commision
LOAD-DATE: July 4, 2000
