That typical Utah furnace will cost you about $20 less per year to pump warm air through your typical Utah residence, under a rate decrease requested by Mountain Fuel Supply Co.
The company asked the Public Service Commission to reduce rates for residential customers by $13.4 million, amounting to a 3.36 percent drop for the "typical residential customer using 1,150 therms (of heat) per year," said a Mountain Fuel announcement.The ordinary cost of heating a home would be about $575 a year, instead of the present $595.
The request is one of Mountain Fuel's semiannual rate adjustments. The decrease would go into effect on July 1 if approved.
Louise Jacobsen, spokeswoman for Mountain Fuel, said two other rate adjustments have been imposed in the past year, both decreases: a $5 million decrease on July 1, 1991, and a $3.3 million decrease that went into effect on Jan. 1.
Presently, the PSC is deciding a case filed by the Committee of Consumer Services, which requested an $80 million repayment for consumers. The committee is a state agency that represents the interests of residential and small-business utility users.
The committee asserts Mountain Fuel could have bought natural gas at a lower rate on the open market, rather than going through its sister company, Questar Pipeline. Those costs are passed directly to the consumer.
Mountain Fuel responds that buying on the spot market would actually cost consumers more in the long run.
Jacobsen cited the request for a decrease as evidence that the present system works well.
If Questar Pipeline can keep its costs low, the savings are passed along to Mountain Fuel customers, Jacobsen said.