An underwhelming response to an early March public hearing on Questar Gas rate increases has prompted the Public Service Commission to have another hearing.
The new hearing will take place at 5:30 p.m. April 5 and will be interactively broadcast using the EDnet facilities at the University of Utah and other locations throughout the state.
Only three people from across the state came to EDnet sites for a March 7 hearing, although site facilitators and journalists made a few comments and posed several questions. But commissioners and Roger Ball, administrative secretary of the Committee of Consumer Services, acknowledged that the public obviously had not adequately been informed about the hearing beforehand.
The March 7 hearing followed one the night before in which about a dozen people gave comments. Attendance at that Salt Lake hearing was about 45, with about half being people from the company or other public agencies involved in the rate case.
"It's a pass-through filing, so we don't feel like there's a lot we can do (on the rate amount), but we still want to hear from customers," Questar spokeswoman Audra Sorensen said Friday. "We know we didn't have the best turnout before, but the company, the Public Service Commission and the Committee of Consumer Services all want to hear what the customers have to say."
The hearings will be about two so-called "pass-through" increases, which relate to the company's costs in obtaining gas. The increases are passed on to the customer on a dollar-for-dollar basis with no markup.
The company again plans no legal notices, instead relying on news media to provide information about the hearings to the public. But news coverage throughout the state in advance of the hearing was spotty. Compounding the problem was a last-minute switch of the hearing time, moving it back a half-hour from its original start time because of an EDnet scheduling conflict.
Sorensen said Questar opted not to spend money on a legal notice or paid advertising about the hearing. Although the company has run large newspaper ads in recent weeks involving a variety of energy topics, those were paid for by Questar shareholders. Any paid ads for the upcoming hearing would have to be recouped through customer rates, she said.
Customer rates already have increased through two pass-through cases that are the focus of the hearing. The commission approved the increases on an interim basis Jan. 4.
The increases total $230 million for Questar. One in October added $6.62 to the average monthly bill. January's increase of $167 million, or $17 per month to the typical homeowner, was the largest ever sought by the company. The typical homeowner now pays $75.42 per month.
People wanting to speak at the April 5 hearing are asked to contact the appropriate representative at the EDnet site in their area.
Hearing sites include:
Beaver County USU Cooperative, Beaver; Mark Nelson at 435-438-6450.
Box Elder High School, Brigham City; Paulette Valentine at 435-734-4840.
Southwest Applied Technology Center, Cedar City; Brent Judd at 435-586-2899.
Davis County USU Cooperative, Farmington; Shawn Olsen at 451-3402.
Delta High School; Lloyd Loveless at 435-864-5710.
Washington County USU Cooperative, St. George; Kathy Riggs at 435-652-5812.
Morgan High School; Cheryl Rupp at 829-3418.
Garfield County USU Cooperative, Panguitch; Lucille Procter at 435-676-8826.
Snow College, Ephraim; Cathy Beal at 435-283-7080.
Snow College South, Richfield; Richard Warner at 435-896-9777.
Rich High School, Randolph: Reed Eborn at 435-793-2365.
South Summit High School, Kamas; Billy Sue McNeil at 435-783-4313.
Tooele High School; Kendall Topham at 435-833-1978.
Uintah Basin ATC, Roosevelt; Russell Petersen at 435-722-6927.
University of Utah; Colleen Nordberg at 581-5214.
Utah State University, Logan; Heather Raaum at 435-797-2709.
Carbon County USU Cooperative, Price: Marlon Winger at 435-636-3236.
Orem USU Continuing Education Center; Elizabeth Warner at 222-8907.
Weber State University; Alan Ferrin at 626-6410.
E-mail: bwallace@desnews.com