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Ask FERC to investigate winter energy prices

20140303_JanuaryElectric_enewsWhat’s going on with energy prices this winter?

That’s a question CUB wants answered, and we’re asking for your help.  Send a message to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to investigate the root causes behind this winter’s electric and natural gas price spikes.

Power and gas prices skyrocketed in January.  While some of this phenomenon can be attributed to the frigid “polar vortex” temperatures, CUB wants to know if the energy industry did all it could to protect consumers from these unprecedented increases.

CUB and consumer advocates from 10 other states and the District of Columbia recently wrote a letter to the FERC saying the price jumps reflected “significant and systemic inefficiencies” that may have been preventable.

For example, about 40,000 megawatts of electricity were unavailable to customers and wholesale power prices reached about $2 per kilowatt-hour in parts of Illinois during the height of the record-breaking cold. Plus, severe constraints on interstate gas pipelines contributed to historically high wholesale prices.

Consumers are now getting hit with March gas utility rates that have risen by up to 80 percent!  And we have heard reports that consumers across the country are receiving energy bills up to four times what they were at the same time last year or the month before.

Let’s get to the bottom of this.  Add your voice and ask the FERC to discover what’s behind these price increases!