In a busy meeting Thursday the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) voted to investigate a proposed annual rate increase by Equitable Gas Co. and also unanimously approved the gas cost rate (GCR) increase requests from Valley Energy Inc. and Pike County Light & Power. The commission voted unanimously to investigate Equitable Gas Co.’s $51.9 million (10%) hike that would increase the monthly bill for an average residential natural gas customer using 7.5 Mcf per month from $142.63 a month to $157.14 a month. The PUC said it will assign the case to the office of administrative law judge for a recommended decision. The commission has until March 30, 2009, to make its final decision at a public meeting in Harrisburg. Equitable Gas provides service to approximately 258,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in Pittsburgh and in portions of Allegheny, Armstrong, Butler, Clarion, Fayette, Green, Indiana, Jefferson, Washington and Westmoreland counties. According to the company, the reason for the increase is to cover rising operating and maintenance expenses, as well as to recover costs of investments in the utility’s plant and investments to improve the quality of service for its customers. On the approved GCR increase requests, the commission approved a 42.1% increase in Valley Energy’s GCR from $7.8865/Mcf to $11.2083/Mcf and a 2.8% increase for Pike County Light & Power from $10.1715 to $10.4550/Mcf. The companies’ new GCRs go into effect Sept. 1.

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