California looks at ways to curb soaring natural gas bills for SDG&E and other consumers

Source: The San Diego Union-Tribune  |  By Rob Nikolewski
(This story is a San Diego Union-Tribune subscriber exclusive.)

The California Public Utilities Commission and its independent arm that looks out for ratepayers is looking at measures — at least in the short term — to blunt some of the sticker shock that customers with natural gas hookups will soon see.

The Utility Reform Network (TURN), a ratepayer advocacy group based in San Francisco, likes the idea.

“There’s no point in billing people all of it right now when we expect (the commodity price for natural gas is) going to be much lower next month,” said TURN’s executive director, Mark Toney. “It really makes more sense when you get this kind of one-time increase, that we know is isolated, to just spread it out.”