The PUCO Hearing Report

[jay]

FYI - Testimony Submitted by Jim V.

Dominion East Ohio's Flat Rate proposal, $17.50 per month regardless of consumption, has two fundamental inadequacies as energy distribution policy.

1. Such policy will not encourage conservation, which is essential if we, as a society, are to reduce our carbon footprint.

2.  Such policy will oblige the small and conserving user to finance the consumption habit of the larger users, some of whom may actually see their bills decrease.


To instrument a policy that discourages conservation and unfairly burdens the working and poorer consumer with an obligation to finance some portion of the larger and commercial users' consumption is a policy that could invite social unrest.

[irishbobcat]

The bottom line is we are going to be paying the flat rate so East Ohio can put in new lines and upgrade construction for new dwellings and buildings.

I believe the PUCO already gave Duke Energy the OK in Cincy.....

It's coming Y-Town......start saving your dough.......

Some PUCO....who is to protect the consumers!

WRITE-IN
DENNIS SPISAK FOR CONGRESS
Green Party Candidate for Ohio's 6th District

Renewable Energy Green/Blue Collars Jobs
Single-Payer Affordable Healthcare
Economic Fairness/Quality Education
Clear and Fair Elections with Paper Ballots

Campaign Site:  Http://votespisak.org/electspisak.tripod.com

[Towntalk]

Let Dominion East Ohio explain this from the 7/30/2008 New York Times:

"Natural gas prices, which had risen the fastest this year as traders anticipated a hot summer, have fallen 33 percent since the beginning of the month."


"Natural gas settled at $9.22 a thousand cubic feet on Tuesday, down from a high of about $13.58 at the beginning of the month, as a cooler-than-expected summer helped curb the use of gas to generate electricity. That has led to a build-up of commercial inventories."

[Towntalk]

95% of my cooking is done in an electric skillet and the microwave, and I rarely use my gas stove except to cook pasta, yet my gas bill is also outrageous while my electric bill is constant, and quite reasonable. If there was some way that I could cook pasta in my microwave, my stove would no longer be needed.

Ron Verb has been talking about this the past couple of days, and he's working on something that could reduce our natural gas bills, so be sure to tune him in.

By the way, how will this affect those of us who are on the budget and buy our gas from another company?

[ForumManager]

Could gas usage be down a little because last winter many switched to electric heaters to supplement. We considered it.  We have foam/stucco siding and our gas bill continues to be outrageous.

[Mary_Krupa]

Dennis:  is the decline in usage due to people really and truly making an effort to use less and to insulating their homes?  It seems that that is a very significant drop and I have a hard time believing that people are actually conserving.

I was at the hearing but only for about half an hour since I was on my lunch break. I would estimate the crowd at 150.  I was really pleased at the attendance.  The first speaker, an older gentleman from Austintown spoke for at least 5 minutes and was very calm and articulate and knew his stuff. He got rousing applause after he stepped down.

I was told that no members of the PUCO were there, only staffers running the meeting. Who is on this commission?  Seems like they are on the gas company's side.

[irishbobcat]

West-sider.......East Ohio Wants to add a surcharge to your monthly bill because their profits are down.

They  want to add surcharge to customers if gas use keeps dropping
We're using less natural gas to heat our homes, and that might cost us.

The trouble is that the utility pays for most of its fixed costs through fees that are based on the amount of gas used by customers.

So, the less they use the less we have to pay for pipelines, maintenance and similar costs'

Which is why the surcharge was created.

It's designed to keep operating profits up as customers use less.

The amount of gas used by the average homeowner has been on the decline for several years.

In 1995, for instance, the average homeowner used 130,000 cubic feet of gas annually. By January 2004 that had fallen to 115,000 cubic feet.

Then natural gas prices started to climb. As a result, usage fell even more.

By January 2005 the average homeowner was using just 105,000 cubic feet of gas annually. By January of this year that number had fallen to 99,649.

That decline, which is being felt across the natural gas industry, is forcing National Fuel and companies like it to reassess how they charge customers.

They would like to move away from charging everyone based on usage and toward higher fixed base rates, with added fees based on the amount of gas used.


Dennis Spisak


WRITE-IN
DENNIS SPISAK FOR CONGRESS
Green Party Candidate for Ohio's 6th District

Renewable Energy Green/Blue Collars Jobs
Single-Payer Affordable Healthcare
Economic Fairness/Quality Education
Clear and Fair Elections with Paper Ballots

Campaign Site:  Http://votespisak.org/electspisak.tripod.com

[northside lurker]

I haven't been following this issue closely.  But, according to the Vindy article, the average gas bill will go up about $4.50/mo.

I just checked some of my past gas bills.  And, indeed, my recent bills would have been about $5-10 more.  But, my highest bill last winter would have been about $26 LESS.

This doesn't seem like a terrible thing.  What am I missing?  Or is this "the straw that broke the camel's back?"

[jay]

Forum member Irishbobcat presented testimony at the PUCO hearing.

[Towntalk]

Why doesn't the gas company simply say ... What is your monthly income? Send every penny of it.

If this goes through, here is one voter that will NEVER (SHOUTING AT THE TOP OF MY LUNGS!) vote for a single tax levy for anything regardless of how important it might be or how urgent, and I urge all of you to do the same. NO MORE TAXES FOR SCHOOILS ... NO MORE TAXES FOR POLICE AND FIRE ... NO MORE TAXES FOR WRTA ... NO MORE TAXES FOR LIBRARIES ... NO MORE TAXES FOR ANYTHING PERIOD!

If this means drastic cuts in services so be it!

As for the Mayor and my Council Member ... THEY HAVE LOST MY VOTE ... and NOTHING they can say or do will redeem them so far as this voter is concerned ... NOTHING!

Oh, and by the way, the Vindicator gives the figure 200 who attended the meeting.

[jay]

I was very disappointed that the mayor did not speak against the Dominion East Ohio flat rate increase.  For that matter, not one council member addressed the PUCO public hearing either.

[irishbobcat]

I thought the turnout by the Mahoning Valley Greens and everyone was fantastic.

mahoning Valley green Lynn Anderson gave a great speech on the history of the PUCO and how much they were to only charge us......9 percent.....Way to go Lynn!

I believe we need to continue to work hard to show huge public support and outcry against these utilities companies who are creating their own little rules to get back their profits after they convinved us consumers  we could save money on our gas bills.

What's next? Since gas dropped 30 cents in the last two weeks, will BP and Shell follow East Ohio's idea and charge us a 30 cent  service charge just to take the pump off the holster?


Dennis Spisak- Green Party Write-In Candidate for Congress-Ohio's 6th distict

website: Http://votespisak.org/electspisak.tripod.com

[jay]

I believe over 100 citizens attended.

If any Forum members were in attendance, please post your comments about the hearing.

[jay]

I was very pleased with the PUCO hearing today.  Youngstown City Council Chambers were full and some people had to sit in the caucus room and in the hallway.