Natural gas base rates to jump locally
Houstonians will soon have to dig a little deeper in their pockets to pay their natural gas bills.
Beginning Monday, CenterPoint Energy is raising the base rate for natural gas by about 70 cents a month —a 4.6 percent increase — although most of the region’s customers will get a temporary reprieve. The price increase is nearly twice the U.S. inflation rate of 2.5 percent.
Residential customers of CenterPoint pay a monthly charge of $15.75 for basic natural gas service, a fee that does not include the cost of the natural gas itself, which is billed
separately according to usage. Starting Monday, the basic monthly service charge will rise to about $16.45 in the Houston area.
CenterPoint notified local communities by letter in March that it was imposing the rate increase. Under state law, cities have no power to fight the increases — other than ask for a 45-day delay.
Most communities, including Houston, requested the 45-day delay, which would put off any increase until July, according to CenterPoint. About 1 million CenterPoint customers will be affected by the rate increase.
CenterPoint said it is raising rates to recover $144 million it invested in the Houston area, according to letters CenterPoint sent to cities.
The boost in rates is coming shortly after CenterPoint reported a $1.1 billion benefit from the cut in federal corporate tax rates from 35 percent to 21 percent. CenterPoint reported a profit of $1.8 billion in 2017 — including the onetime gain of $1.1 billion in federal tax savings — compared to $432 million it earned the previous year.
CenterPoint spokeswoman Leticia Lowe said the tax cuts allowed the utility to seek a lower rate increase. Without those savings, she said, the increase would have been 75 cents, instead of 70 cents.
Additional savings will come back to customers through a variety of regulatory mechanisms and rate proceedings, she added.
“Tax reform is a win for CenterPoint utility customers,” Lowe said in a statement.