By Marcelle Dibrell
California residents may want to avoid using their spas for a while.
That’s because in January the price of natural gas spiked by 300 percent for large parts of Southern California and about 80 percent in much of the northern part of the state. And given that your average 400,000-Btu gas heater burns through 4 therms an hour, few are going to want to pay for the luxury.
Many residents opening their January bills were horrified to see the unexpected increase.
The situation is so appalling that Governor Gavin Newsom has called for a federal investigation into the natural gas price spike.
In a February 6 letter to the federal agency responsible for regulating wholesale natural gas, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the governor requested that the agency “immediately focus its investigatory resources on assessing whether market manipulation, anticompetitive behavior, or other anomalous activities are driving these ongoing elevated prices in the western gas markets.”
Meanwhile, in response to the spike, on February 6, the California Public Utilities Commission voted to accelerate the California Climate Credit to help residents with high gas bills. Utility customers typically see these credits in April but instead received their credits of roughly $90 to $120 in February.
Governor Newsom says that’s not enough.
“We know this provides only temporary relief from soaring bills,” Newsom stated in a press release. “That’s why I’m asking the federal government to use its full authority to investigate the spike in natural gas prices and take any necessary enforcement actions. We’re going to get to the bottom of this because Californians deserve to know what’s behind these exorbitant bills.”
According to the U.S. Energy Information Agency, a number of factors have contributed to the dramatic increase: below-normal temperatures; high gas use; lower imports of natural gas from Canada; gas pipeline constraints, including maintenance issues in West Texas; and lower gas storage levels in the Pacific region.
Those statements were echoed in a letter sent to customers by the Southern California Gas Company on January 31 promising that a 68-percent decrease in rates may be expected for February, compared to January.
However, these answers don’t satisfy many California residents, and especially as the January price of natural gas on a nationwide basis tumbled to its lowest level since April 2021, according to a January 26 article appearing in the Wall Street Journal.
Not to mention the fact that SoCalGas customers will still be looking at a February bill that is 232-percent higher than it was last year.
The governor isn’t satisfied by those answers either.
In his letter to federal regulators, Newsom wrote, “those known factors cannot explain the extent and longevity of the price spike.”
A spokesperson for FERC said that the agency had received his letter and plans to review it.
