Press Releases and Statements

APGA Calls for Congressional Hearings on Natural Gas Price Gouging 

03-10-2021 02:06 PM

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
Dave Schryver, President & CEO

Phone: (202) 464-0835

Email: dschryver@apga.org

 

APGA Calls for Congressional Hearings on Natural Gas Price Gouging

National association calls on Congressional leaders to conduct oversight into historic regional price increases

 

Washington, D.C. (March 10, 2021) – Following the extreme weather in the Southwest over President’s Day Weekend, the American Public Gas Association (APGA), representing more than 700 local, municipally owned natural gas systems in 38 states, has requested that the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources conduct hearings on the abnormal price hikes on natural gas and the ensuing financial crisis in several states.

 

From February 11th to the 18th, wholesale natural gas prices increased by 100 to 300 times in several states, including Texas. Amid the extreme cold, APGA members continued to serve their communities by purchasing increased quantities for deliveries at historic daily spot prices. Public natural gas systems were forced to purchase gas at inflated prices or pay steeper pipeline penalties. In one state, a joint action agency expended three times its annual gas purchasing budget just to buy gas for its customers for four days.

 

“Natural gas infrastructure has once again demonstrated its reliability and resiliency during the severe weather storms last month,” said Dave Schryver, President and CEO of APGA. “But our publicly-owned members are now bearing the brunt of providing continued access to heat and hot water at a critical time for the thousands of customers they serve. Now, public natural gas systems across the country are struggling to pay the bills they incurred while trying to minimize the impacts upon their customers.”

 

A Congressional investigation is in the public interest and will further help to determine whether the market operated in a manner consistent with the public good, whether laws were broken and what, if any, measures could be put in place to prevent this from happening in the future.

 

 

To read the letters APGA sent to the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, click here and here.

 

 

APGA is the national association of municipally and publicly-owned local distribution systems. There are about 1,000 public gas systems serving more than 6 million customers. These public gas utilities are not-for-profit retail distribution entities that are owned by, and accountable to, the citizens they serve. They include municipal gas distribution systems, public utility districts, county districts, and other public agencies that have natural gas distribution facilities.

 

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