GA Natural Gas Rates for July

[Sonja Ebron]

We all need to stretch our pennies a little farther these days. If you
have an annual contract for natural gas, you could get locked into a
bad deal if you don't check the rates when you're eligible to switch.

Marketers quote only the gas rates, but your bill includes customer
service fees and other charges that add up. FYI, here are the
"Apples-to-Apples" rates offered by Georgia marketers for annual
contracts signed this month (as published by the PSC):

1) Coweta-Fayette EMC (877-RINGEMC): $1.00/therm
2) GasKey (877-GAS-1KEY): $1.01/therm
3) Georgia Natural Gas (877-850-6200): $1.03/therm
4) Infinite Energy (877-342-5434): $1.04/therm
5) Scana Energy (877-GO-SCANA): $1.08/therm
6) Shell Energy (877-67-SHELL): $1.03/therm
7) Southern Company Gas (866-SOCO-GAS): $1.04/therm
8) Walton EMC (866-WEMCGAS): $0.98/therm.

Simply call your new provider to switch your service. They will work
with Atlanta Gas Light and your current provider to transfer your
account, and they will process your switch the same month if you call
by the 19th.

Sonja Ebron
blackEnergy
http://www.blackenergy.com/
Energy Co-ops... the Power to Empower

[adf23e]

do you happen to know the various "customer service fees" they charge? this
seems to me to be a way of getting around regulation... i plan to write to
the Georgia PSC about my gas bills. I just got gas for the first time in
Georgia, & in my two bills so far, what i actually paid for the gas itself
has amounted to a small portion of the bills (26% & 33%, excluding
connection fees & other one-time charges). That's the most ridiculous
example of bill padding i've ever seen anywhere -- 74% of a bill is for
items other than what i'm actually purchasing?

[Sonja Ebron]

The PSC posts all the rates and fees on its website each month: see
http://www.psc.state.ga.us/gas/marketerpricing/2004/July04/july04gmpl.htm
for this month's data. Most rate plans have monthly service fees of
$5-8 for customers with good credit, though they can rise to more than
$15. The "per therm" rates I listed already include these fees to give
a more honest comparison. Georgia is the only southeastern state with
a deregulated household utility service, so gas suppliers can charge
whatever the market will bear. As a result, we pay more for natural
gas than households in any other SE state. That's why it's important
to comparison shop. I hope the "gas" portion of your bills rises soon.

Sonja Ebron
blackEnergy
http://www.blackenergy.com/
Energy Co-ops... the Power to Empower

"adf23e" <lkjlk...@lkj23lkj3.kje0df9u2.com> wrote in message news:<EZXKc.1$QO...@bignews5.bellsouth.net>...