Scranton City Council hopes to generate widespread opposition to UGI’s proposed rate increases for residential customers and commercial and industrial natural gas customers ranging from 7.5% to 11%.

At their regular weekly meeting Tuesday, council members said they want to see broad opposition to the UGI rate case, much like the example set in 2023-24 against much larger rate increases sought by Pennsylvania American Water.

“We want to get organized,” to oppose the UGI rate request, Councilman Bill King said, according to an Electric City Television simulcast and video posted on YouTube.

UGI Utilities announced Monday it filed a request with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission to increase its base rates for residential, commercial and industrial gas customers by $110.4 million annually. The increases are needed to recover UGI’s ongoing costs related to system improvements and operations necessary to maintain safe and reliable natural gas service, the company said in a news release.

Under the proposal, total bills would increase as follows:

Residential: From $104.47 to $115.74 per month, or a 10.8% spike of $11.27, for a residential heating customer using 73.7 ccf (hundred cubic feet) per month. That works out to $135.24 more over a year.

Commercial: From $305.44 to $331.80 per month, or an 8.6% jump of $26.36, for a typical commercial heating customer using 28.3 mcf (thousand cubic feet) per month. That’s $316.32 more per year.

Industrial: From $765.99 to $823.42 per month, or a 7.5% rise of $57.43, for a typical industrial customer using 75.4 mcf per month. That’s $689.16 more a year.

These are impacts on customers purchasing the gas commodity portion of their bill from UGI. Customers using an alternate natural gas supplier may see differing impacts.

During the PAW rate request filed in November 2023 with the PUC, the city and Dunmore joined with state Sen. Marty Flynn, D-22, Dunmore, and other local legislators to galvanize widespread opposition to the water rate hikes that were to range from around 25% to 32% for homes, businesses and industries.

In December 2023, Flynn and several state representatives set up an office at 341 N. Washington Ave. in Scranton as a base from which to help ratepayers file with the PUC formal complaints against the PAW proposal. The effort produced a deluge of complaints against the rate request and about the water company’s service.

In July, the PUC slashed the big water rate increase sought by PAW by over $100 million, or more than 50%. Originally, PAW sought increases of 24.2% in water rates and 2.5% in wastewater rates. The rate hikes that were approved by the PUC were 10.7% for water and 6.4% for wastewater.

Regarding the UGI rate request, King said, “We’re going to try to organize just the way we did with the state reps, and Sen. Flynn, to try to get people together, get a lot of the citizens to file complaints as well. We had a lot of people file complaints.”

“I’ll want to meet with our solicitor to talk about a course of action with UGI so we can get organized and try to file a complaint, just as we did with Pennsylvania American Water company,” King said. “We fought that. We got the increase cut in half. We wanted it zero, but we got it cut in half. … I’d like to see that effort start up again” in the UGI rate case.

Also on Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan, R-8, Dallas Twp., issued a statement opposing the UGI rate request, saying: “As Northeastern Pennsylvanians continue to struggle with high living costs, it is infuriating to see a public utility company request to raise rates by over 10%. It’s unacceptable that NEPA families are fighting to keep their homes warm while corporate executives stand at the trough collecting multi-million-dollar compensation packages. UGI should expect to answer for the fiscally irresponsible mismanagement of this essential service.”

UGI’s request includes over $786 million in investments for improvements to its natural gas distribution system, facilities and information technology, which are not reflected in current rates. A substantial portion of these improvements involve the ongoing replacement of all noncontemporary pipelines with those made of contemporary materials, according to the company.

The rate increase request will impact only the delivery charge portion of a customer’s bill. The delivery charge provides a utility with the funds needed to own, operate and maintain the gas distribution system and provide customer service and emergency response services.

UGI requests that new rates take effect March 28, but PUC typically suspends the effective date for general base rate proceedings to allow for investigation and public hearings. The full PUC proceeding is expected to last about nine months from the date of filing, which would delay implementation of the new rates until October.

Customers and interested parties may view UGI’s base rate filing materials on the UGI website at ugi.com by clicking on the “rate filing” link on the home page. Customers with questions may also call UGI toll-free at 1-800-276-2722 to receive information on the proposed rate increase or to find out what actions they make take.

UGI Utilities Gas Division serves more than 700,000 customers in 46 counties across Pennsylvania.

Citizens’ Voice Staff Writer Stephen Mocarsky contributed to this article.