The mayor of Newberry said last Thursday, “It pains me. It pains everyone on our board,” that CNNGA customers got bills 44% higher in February because of a temporary rate adjustment to pay for the natural gas delivered during an ice storm and then a snow storm.
Customers were stunned on Feb. 11 as bills started arriving. “It got cold,” the authority’s general manager said, “and it stayed cold.”
But people who came to the Clinton Newberry Natural Gas Authority’s board meeting - changed from the normal 4th Tuesday to a Thursday in a larger venue - weren’t buying it. They submitted 25 questions, written down on cards, not presented verbally, and one of them was along the lines of “I’ve lived in D.C., I’ve lived in Atlanta, in 30 years I’ve never seen a bill like this, why here?”
General Manager Jimmy Capps gave a PowerPoint presentation attempting to answer, “why here, why now?” and industry expert Rich Klaus said, “We didn’t expect what we got in January.”
Newberry Mayor Foster Senn and Clinton Mayor Randy Randall spoke briefly when a question was asked about qualifications to be on the CNNGA board -- the Mayors are members, and the two city councils appoint two members each, and one member is at-large. Senn said he has been on the board since 2010, starting in a time when Pennsylvania shale made the fuel plentiful, and costs low. “We take great pride in the fact that we are lower (in price) than the two largest utilities in South Carolina. Safety, reliable, we offer appliances, we are customer-friendly.” Randall said he came into contact with CNNGA in 2003, and later he spent 8 years as a member of the state’s Public Service Commission which oversees utilities. “We have a great management team that keeps us informed. We (board members) pay the same rate that everybody else does.”
In response to a question, it was said that board members receive a stipend - Senn said in his case it adds up to about $1,100 a year - and the authority provided employees with a $750 Christmas bonus and last year’s raise was 3%. The Authority has neither a Rate Stabilization Fund nor a “rainy day” reserves fund.
At the end of each fiscal year, CNNGA gives back to the sponsoring cities a share of its annual profits.
Klaus said the 10 days of natural gas market volatility that led local customers’ bills to spike was the worst he had seen since 2022, and Storm Elliott, when there were 4 days of volatility. In this case, production facilities in Oklahoma froze and the natural caverns in Mississippi where CNNGA buys storage gas were closed by the storm -- natural gas businesses all along the East Coast and as far southwest as Texas were clamoring for supply. “We can’t control the weather,” said Capps, who fielded the questions submitted on cards by the audience, and he reminded the crowd three times that cards containing obscene language would not be read. There were no disturbances or disruptions during the 90-minute meeting.
He said any answers not provided, or new questions submitted for answer, would be done so on the FAQ section of the CNNGA website. Many questions submitted were duplicates, but there were 25 general questions that Capps answered.
He said cut-offs for non-payment will be delayed, and bank drafts would not be submitted until after the Feb. 27-28 weekend. Thousands of customers have come to the authority’s two offices to sign up for a 6-month “spread out” of the 44% temporary rate hike, Capps said, adding “we never increased our base rate.”
“It was a shock,” Capps said of the extended cold weather and the havoc it played within the nation’s natural gas supply and pipeline systems. He said CNNGA simply passed along what its suppliers charged for the gas it ordered, and that makes this situation not “price-gouging.” They never “ran out” of natural gas, he said.
“We are not a monopoly; we are a choice,” Capps said. The SC Attorney General’s Office has asked for information about what happened and what CNNGA is doing to protect customers to be submitted in writing by March 6. Randall said other providers, in-state, have been affected also by this market volatility. Of course, Capps said, CNNGA will comply with the AG’s request. The general manager said, in the future, the authority will be “very nimble” and able to give customers a longer heads-up about when it is cold and when they can expect their bills to spike. He said normalcy should return now that February had milder weather.
