LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Cascade Natural Gas: Washington Utilities
built 628 days ago
The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission announced Wednesday that Cascade Natural Gas customers would see a 17.6 percent drop in their bills starting with November’s usage. That means a savings of about $13 a month for the average customer, who uses about 59 therms.
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Commodity prices of natural gas are determined by forces of demand and supply in an unregulated market, and established by direct transactions between buyers and sellers. No government agency determines what prices should be paid in the market for the gas commodity component. Natural gas utilities in California typically file requests at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to seek recovery of the costs incurred for buying the gas commodity for their customers, pursuant to "gas cost incentive mechanisms" adopted by the CPUC. The CPUC reviews the utilities' requests, but has no authority to limit or regulate the price that suppliers can charge the utilities. However, the rates for delivery of gas over interstate and intrastate pipelines are regulated. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) regulates rates for delivery over interstate lines while the CPUC regulates rates for delivery over intrastate transmission lines.
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The infusion of Pacific Natural's business yielded the first appreciable growth Cascade had experienced since its inception. By 1962, the corporation served over 20,000 customers located in 52 rural communities. Cascade had withdrawn from the utility market in Idaho several years earlier to concentrate solely on the Washington and Oregon markets, which provided more than enough business for the corporation to manage. Throughout the region, natural gas distributors were raising their capital expenditures to meet the growing demand engendered by an increasing population, economic expansion, and the wide acceptance of natural gas by both residential and industrial consumers. Cascade shared in the vitality of the industry, connecting an average of 5,000 customers annually to its service during the early 1960s. In fact, from 1960 to 1964, Cascade experienced a dramatic surge in growth, more than doubling its number of residential customers from 16,074 to 33,834, and increasing its commercial and industrial users from 4,682 to 7,555.
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The majority of Cascade's supply of natural gas is transported via Williams Gas Pipelines-West (Williams). Williams owns and operates a transmission system extending north from the Colorado and New Mexico areas and south from British Columbia, Canada to Washington State. The company is ... a shipper on the Pacific Gas and Electric National Energy Group (PG&E) system. PG&E owns and operates a gas transmission line that connects with the facilities of the TransCanada Pipeline at the border near Kingsgate, British Columbia and extends through Washington and central Oregon into California. Cascade also receives natural gas directly from Westcoast Energy at the Canadian border near Sumas, Washington.
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By the end of 1954, Cascade had reached an agreement with Pacific Northwest Pipeline Co. to provide a two-way supply of natural gas from the fields in Canada and in the San Juan Basin. Once the corporation had established primary and supplementary sources of natural gas, plans and financing were arranged to enlarge its area of service. At this time, Cascade was distributing gas to 17 communities in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, and by 1955 eight additional communities in the region became Cascade customers. To bolster its customer base, Cascade, in early 1956, launched an expansion program totaling approximately $20 million to be spent over the next several years, as the corporation hurriedly sought to meet the increasing demand occasioned by a rapidly growing population.
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Cascade Natural Gas, which serves parts of Oregon and Washington, including Kitsap County, has yet to make a request. But John Stoltz, a Cascade vice president, said Tuesday he expects within the month to ask for an increase of 12 percent to 17 percent over the monthly average of $80.
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