The historic cold weather and accompanying record gas bills could force a small northeast Kansas town to become unincorporated because it cannot afford to pay its home-heating debt.
Denison is a small town of fewer than 200 people in Jackson County north of Topeka and it owes about $241,400 in gas bills, double the amount paid for all of 2020 according to the Topeka Capital Journal.
Vickie Wold is the Denison City council president and said if the town doesn’t get assistance, it might lose its city status, a loss that would mean it would no longer finance street repairs and snow removal.
Here’s what happened to Denison, something that occurred throughout Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas during the historic cold weather. Denison ended up buying gas for several days in advance and was hit with a bill of $622 per heat unit or MMBtu, compared to the $2.69 per MMBtu it now pays following the storm.
Other towns in Kansas face the same financial crisis. Hesston, which sits along I-35 north of Wichita is another. As natural gas prices literally sky-rocketed from around $3 to as high as $1,100 per hit, they were hit with staggering bills. Hesston’s gas bill is 45 times higher than it normally is in February.
The Kansas Municipal Gas Association is a buyer for dozens of cities and towns across the state and a four-day bill in February totaled $30 million compared to the yearly bill it pays of about $8 million.
Any relief might come from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly and the Kansas congressional delegation have asked FERC to take some sort of regulatory action to assist the towns struggling with the bills.
Gov. Laura Kelly and the state’s congressional delegation have petitioned the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to take action.