DOUBLED GAS BILLS SHOCK CONSUMERS

Irene Wright thought she misread her December natural gas bill this week.

At $360, it was almost triple what she expected from years past.

"That's high," said Wright, who heats a two story, three bedroom house in Cape Girardeau. "My house is well insulated."

Rosetta Colley of Sikeston, on a different natural gas system, was similarly shocked at her December bill.

"It was probably about $100 higher than the norm," she said.

But the "norm" is usually a lot warmer in Southeast Missouri. Fifty-eight percent of the gas price increase was due to the colder weather, said gas provider AmerenUE's Mike Cleary. The rest of the increase was due to increases in prices of oil, and a 4.9 percent increase approved for AmerenUE.

AmerenUE has 106,000 commercial and residential natural gas customers in Missouri, including 19,400 in Cape Girardeau, Stoddard and Scott counties, and another 2,000 in Butler and Bollinger counties and the city of Advance.

Bills as shocking as Wright's and Colley's were anticipated by energy officials. Just last month, the Energy Department estimated that heating bills for natural gas consumers would be at least 50 percent higher this winter than last even if the weather were the same. Officials blamed volatile natural gas prices and lower inventories.

Last month was the second coldest December in the history of Missouri, whereas December 1999 was the second warmest December in Missouri, so gas customers enjoyed unusually low bills then. In fact, all of last winter was mild, with days in the 40s, 50s and even 60s.

December 2000 saw 27 days of freezing temperatures, six of them with lows ranging from 0 to 8 degrees.

"We ran some numbers on December heating bills," said Cleary. "We calculated the average gas bill in Cape Girardeau and parts of Scott and Stoddard counties at about $51 in 1999. This year, the average was about $124 for December."

That translates into a 143 percent increase in one year.

Utility companies also file for the annual winter purchase gas adjustments each year. This reflects the wholesale increases in the cost of gas from utilities companies' suppliers. The PGA usually accounts for more than half of an average customer's total natural gas bill.

Propane gas customers also are looking at higher prices. A spokesman for the Missouri Propane Gas Association said higher crude oil prices also affected propane gas prices.

However, electric customers saw little increase. Del Hobbs of Cape Girardeau had a slight one.

"We have an all-electric home," he said. "Our bill was up, but not that much."