AARP Applauds Reduced Rate Hike for Black Hills Energy

Paul Fleet

More than 110,000 Kansas utility consumers are the winners in the latest utility rate increase request by Black Hills Energy.

In April 2014, the company, based in South Dakota, requested a $5.1 million rate increase for natural gas prices from the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC).  If granted, Black Hills natural gas customers in Kansas would have seen their natural gas bills increase by $4.17 a month, or about $50 a year. Instead, after hearing testimony and considering the case, the KCC approved a rate increase which equals about $3 a year increase for the average Black Hills customer.

“AARP Kansas staff and volunteers, working with the Citizen’s Utility Ratepayer Board (CURB), urged the KCC not to approve the rate increase request,” said AARP Kansas Director Maren Turner. “AARP Kansas and older Americans understand that essential services such as utilities cannot be provided resulting in financial loss to the company,” Turner testified.  "However, utility providers must remember their responsibility to the public they serve and not just to their investors, especially at a time when many older Kansans on low to moderate incomes are struggling to make financial ends meet.

“We’re very pleased that the KCC took our concerns into consideration when determining the outcome of the rate increase request," said Turner.

In its testimony to the KCC, AARP Kansas also expressed concern that the rate increase would apply equally to all customers and was not based solely on usage.  Larger households which use more natural gas would pay the same monthly increase as single-person households.