MORGANTOWN — A Hope Gas proposal to convert 629 farm-tap customers to propane has drawn significant opposition — with 31 letters of protest filed in six days.
Some point out they, and sometimes the property owners before them, have had free gas for decades.
“I have owned this property for 40 years and free gas is specified in the deed,” one says.
And another: “My family has had free natural gas on this property for over twenty years. It is in the deed to our home and property. Families that have owned this property before us have had free gas way longer than that! Just about all of our appliances run off gas too. … Not to mention the road maintenance for these heavy propane trucks driving on these gravel WV back roads.”
And, “I do not support voiding deeded and negotiated free gas rights that have existed for over a hundred years.”
Others are emotional and talk about the hardships conversion could pose.
“If I lose my free gas and start having to pay a heat bill, I will have to leave my home and will be homeless, really, because I won’t be able to pay rent anywhere else and I don’t really have any family I could live with! I’m a widow and live on a fixed income and can barely afford to buy groceries after I pay all my bills the way it is now!”
The Public Service Commission has set a Dec. 9 evidentiary hearing in the case at its Charleston headquarters.
Farm-tap customers typically live along pipelines and have wells drilled on their property, and tap into those lines to receive their gas supply.
Hope Gas is proposing to abandon in place or transfer to other companies certain gathering pipelines that it previously acquired from Equitrans and Dominion Gathering and Processing. Hope bought about 3,000 miles of pipeline, it said, with about 14,800 farm-tap customers.
Hope said some of those lines are no longer necessary or useful. Jeffrey S. Nehr, Hope’s senior vice president for Gas Supply and Corporate Development, told the PSC that providing safe, reliable, economic service to the farm-tap customers along those lines is in jeopardy because existing service “is either unsafe, unreliable, uneconomical, or any combination of the three.”
It wants to switch 479 farm-tap customers along those gathering system pipelines along with 150 farm-tap customers served off pipelines owned by Diversified and other companies to propane.
The affected customers live in 22 counties, including Monongalia, Marion, Harrison and Wetzel.
Hope proposes to convert those customers to propane at its own expense, at about $10,000 per customer plus $2,000 for propane storage and house lines. Or, if the customer wishes, Hope would convert them to electric service provided by a local electric utility — the switch achieved also at Hope’s expense.
The letters of protest raise various issues. So far, most, but not all, come from Calhoun County. Here is a sampling of comments.
One says, “The original oil & gas leases that were negotiated for free gas should be honored & contractually upheld. That is the cost of doing business. Unless both the landowner and gas company agree on a new contract.
This letter discusses various issues associated with propane emissions and leaks, and says propane has less energy per unit of volume causing reduced fuel efficiency, necessitating burning more of it than natural gas or heating oil.
Another writer has a private gas lease. “This will so devalue my property that I will never be able to sell it, not even for the price I paid. This will have me living on the street. I have no one to build me a fireplace to heat my home, no one to hook up my wood cook stove. When I bought my farm with a private well and gas lease I bought it so that I would never be cold again. You are trying to deny me this and force me to uproot my life and my farm.”
Another says, “This would affect a great number of elderly and otherwise underprivileged individuals who are likely on a fixed income and are already struggling to make ends meet. This economy has already put such a strain on the majority of families in this country — let’s not add to that problem.”
One person wrote, “I personally paid for the infrastructure to supply my home with this public utility and I beg and plead that the PSC and other entities do not allow Hope Gas, Inc. out of their responsibility and services to supply me, or others with farm-taps, with local resources from the Appalachian region in which we live.”
Several letters question whether Hope will cover the lifetime cost of the propane, or cover it for a limited time, or not at all.
Hope covers some of that in its original filing:
“Hope authorized representatives will meet with customers to explain the process, impacts, and benefits. The customer will not see any change in costs or services from Hope. They will continue to receive gas service under Hope’s tariff at tariff rates. Hope will also train customers on propane safety and operating new appliances.”
Hope said it will contract with licensed service providers for propane service, propane storage tank and pipeline installation, home appliance conversions and to install home electric appliance conversions.
“Hope proposes that farm-tap customers converted to propane service yet remain Hope customers under the applicable rate schedule in the Company’s tariff … with the cost for the ongoing supply of propane to such customers recovered by Hope as a gas supply cost in the PGA [Purchased Gas Application] rate. Doing so prevents abandoning service to farm-tap customers and is consistent with Hope’s goal of serving customers, acquiring customers, and not abandoning customers. Customers converted to propane will be served under the same rate schedules as they were prior to the conversion. In other words, Hope is not proposing to implement a separate rate for customers using propane.”
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