Atmos Energy helps customers prepare for winter gas bills
Atmos Energy is encouraging its customers to prepare for higher winter gas bills in several ways.
"No one benefits from higher gas costs — certainly not our customers, and not Atmos Energy itself," said Robert W. Best, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Atmos Energy Corporation and the 2004 chairman of the American Gas Association.
Utilities like Atmos Energy purchase natural gas on behalf of their customers and pass on the cost each month to customers without any markup. Gas utilities earn income from the fees approved by the state regulatory agency for delivering the gas to customers and maintaining the distribution system, not from the gas itself.
"During the winter months, the gas-cost portion of a customer's bill can be as much as $8 out of every $10 of the total bill," said Best. "For fixed-income and low-income consumers, keeping warm can be a serious hardship."
To assist these customers, Atmos Energy and other member utilities of the American Gas Association have urged Congress to increase funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).
"Although we are pleased that Congress increased LIHEAP funding for fiscal 2005 to $2.2 billion, it will not be enough to meet the needs that exist," Best said.
Atmos Energy partners with more than 900 local energy assistance agencies to provide options for customers who have difficulty paying their gas bills. The utility also offers payment arrangements to eligible customers to defer their payments over several months, if necessary.
"We encourage all our Kansas customers to help those less fortunate by participating in Project Deserve," Best said.
Each month Atmos Energy customers that participate in Project Deserve pay an additional $1.00 or some other amount with their gas bill. This money is sent to the American Red Cross, which in turn distributes these funds to help those in need to pay their heating bills. Project Deserve has received thousands of dollars in donations from Atmos Energy customers since its beginning in late 1984.
Those citizens wishing to make a direct, tax-deductible contribution to Project Deserve can do so by sending their checks payable to Project Deserve to the American Red Cross, P.O. Box 3726, Wichita, Kansas 67201. Those Atmos Energy customers wishing to participate through payments on their monthly gas bill can call the customer support center at 1-888-442-1313 and designate the amount that they would like added to their monthly gas bill for Project Deserve.
Energy assistance agencies distribute funds to pay, on average, one-fifth of the annual energy costs of low-income consumers. Most recipients do not receive welfare but are working, elderly, or disabled people with below-poverty incomes.
The Project Deserve contributions supplement the federal LIHEAP funds, which historically have been exhausted by February, the time when heating bills are the highest.
To help control the gas commodity charges on its bill, Atmos Energy uses its underground and contracted storage as well as a combination of purchasing methods and financing tools to moderate the swings in wholesale gas prices.
"Hedging has saved hundreds of millions of dollars for our customers," Best said. "However, it's become harder to achieve those savings this year because natural gas costs remained high throughout this past summer when we filled our storage fields."
Best said an equally important benefit of the gas hedging program is to moderate price swings.
"The wild up and down swings in past winter gas prices have been especially hard on our customers' bills. This volatility is the result of wholesale gas market conditions that react more to psychology than to reason. By fixing the cost of our storage gas, we can reduce the effect of high spot-market gas prices."
Atmos Energy recommends that its customers also take advantage of their own opportunities to lower energy bills.
Customers should contact a heating contractor for an annual inspection of all gas appliances to ensure they are operating properly and safely. Appliances operating improperly are less efficient and consume more gas, causing higher gas bills.
Customers can sign up for budget billing to help spread out annual gas bill payments throughout the year. The program is a "rolling 12-month" plan, so customers can sign up at any time of the year, with no annual settle-up. Each month, the budget amount is calculated by averaging the customer's previous 12 months' billings and factoring in changes in gas prices and consumption.
Adding attic insulation and weatherization to doors and windows can lower the heat lost from a home. Building supply and hardware stores carry a wide rang of materials and products and can offer assistance with installations.
According to Best, the answer to keep natural gas costs down is federal energy policy legislation.
"We need a national energy policy — or failing that, a specific bill to address gas, which now provides one-fourth of our country's energy," he said.
"We need to bring more supplies to market by lifting bans on drilling for natural gas on federal lands and in U.S. coastal waters and by building a gas pipeline to Alaska to transport the vast reserves that are locked away because we have no way to move them to the contiguous 48 states," he said.
"Natural gas remains the United States' fuel of choice despite the increases in gas prices during the past five years. New gas supplies would help to stabilize natural gas bills for consumers today and to meet the projection of a 50 percent increase in gas consumption by 2020," he added.
Atmos Energy Corporation, headquartered in Dallas, is the country's largest natural-gas-only distributor, serving approximately 3.2 million utility customers. Atmos Energy's utility operations serve more than 1,500 communities in 12 states from the Blue Ridge Mountains in the East to the Rocky Mountains in the West. Atmos Energy's nonutility operations, organized under Atmos Energy Holdings, Inc., operate in 18 states. They provide natural gas marketing and procurement services to industrial, commercial and municipal customers and manage company-owned natural gas storage and pipeline assets, including one of the largest intrastate natural gas pipeline systems in Texas.
