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NEWS
From the County of
San Bernardino
www.sbcounty.gov
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 22, 2002
For more information, contact
David Wert, Public Information
Officer
(909) 387-4082
Mountain, desert residents win $3.2 million in gas rebates
In what might be an unprecedented ruling,
the California Public Utilities Commission today awarded San Bernardino County
customers of Southwest Gas $3,185,430 in rebates, agreeing that Southwest Gas
overcharged them during the winter of 2000-2001.
The rebates will appear on customers’ gas
bills in the form of a credit toward current and future charges. Each customer
will get an amount in proportion to the amount of energy they consumed.
During the winter of 2000 many of
Southwest Gas customers were subjected to abnormally high gas bills. The Board
of Supervisors directed staff to investigate this and determine if Southwest
Gas had unfairly billed county residents. The county determined that in fact
some residents were unfairly charged and requested action from the PUC.
As a result, on June 28, 2001, the
PUC launched an investigation into Southwest Gas Corporation’s natural gas
procurement practices from June 1, 1999 through May 31, 2001. The county, by
authorization of the Board of Supervisors, joined as a party to the PUC
investigation.
Southwest Gas provides natural gas to
140,000 customers in the High Desert and Big Bear Lake valley. Southwest Gas
serves a total of 1,337,000 customers in California, Nevada, and Arizona.
Supervisor Dennis Hansberger, whose Third
District includes the Big Bear Valley, conducted community meetings with
residents and then made several visits to San Francisco and Sacramento with
Special Districts staff to urge state regulators into action.
-MORE-
Gas
Rebates
August
22 2002
Page
2
“We
got into this fight in order to protect our residents. I believe that with
today’s decision we can claim success. My only wish is that the rebate amount
was higher,” said Supervisor Bill Postmus, whose First District includes most
of the High Desert.
On May 24, 2002, Administrative Law Judge
Tim Sullivan and California Public Utilities Commissioner Carl Wood issued
draft results of their investigations encouraged by a request by the County of
San Bernardino to the PUC.
Both decided that Southwest Gas should not
be allowed to recover millions of dollars in gas procurement costs and should
rebate their customers the amount. Judge Sullivan concluded that Southwest Gas
had overcharged its San Bernardino County customers $3,185,430 while
Commissioner Wood concluded that there was an overcharge of $5,799,067.
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