Kansas Gas Service, a subsidiary of Oklahoma-based ONE Gas, has run into strong opposition from ratepayers in its request for a rate hike that would tack on another $7 –$10 a month, depending on usage.
The company wants Kansas Corporation Commission to approve its request for an increase in base rates of $58.1 million a year and to boost a gas reliability surcharge for another $35 million.
But some of the company’s 648,000 residential customers went recently before the Kansas Corporation Commission and complained, some maintaining Kansas Gas Service was lining its pockets with no benefit to customers.
“There’s too much profit in Kansas Gas — and greed,” said Beverly Jensen LaBonte, who said her husband works for the utility, reported the Kansas Reflector. “People can’t afford this.”
It’s an argument often heard in similar utility rate cases before the Oklahoma Corporation Commission.
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