Ohio is in the process of developing a special bipartisancommittee comprised of House and Senate members to examine highnatural gas prices.

“What I am proposing is that a special committee of thelegislature be created,” said Rep. Kirk Schuring, (R) Canton. “Itwould be ad hoc in nature, and our charge would be to thoroughlyreview the natural gas situation in the state and to have a reportand legislative action ready for introduction no later than the endof August this year.”

The legislator said the committee is to be made up of sevenmembers from both chambers, including Republicans and Democrats.Schuring said the speaker of the house and the president of thesenate would chair the committee, and would each appoint one oftheir seven members as co-chair.

“Here in the state of Ohio like so many other states in theUnited States we have experienced an old fashioned winter where wehave seen an increase in our natural gas bills, but the increasesare far and away greater than what the bitterly cold winter hascalled for,” the house member said. In some cases we have seen adoubling, and in other cases a quadrupling of heating bills.”

A lot of what is going on within the natural gas arena isattributable to national energy policy, or maybe more importantly,the lack of one, Schuring said. He believes that legislators inOhio can “do our due diligence in looking into this crisis verythoroughly.” While he is in favor of deregulation and a freemarket, he thinks there are some things in Ohio’s gas deregulationprogram that need to be looked into.

“I think we need to look at Ohio’s policy as it relates tonatural gas exploration,” the member said. “Maybe we need to offermore incentives for those who want to drill for natural gas. Ithink we need to ask utilities why they don’t read meters asregularly as they once did, and also, how they can ask for a rateincrease during peak demand periods, but under this newderegulation, a consumer only has a few windows of opportunity tomake a choice and when they do, they are locked into a long-termcommitment.”

The lawmaker said he is encouraged by the 20 house co-sponsorsthat have already signed on to support the cause. He said the billto form the committee is likely to be introduced sometime afterGovernor Bob Taft’s state of the state address next week, butbefore the end of the month.

“The idea is to have whatever legislation that is deemedappropriate ready for introduction in the fall so that we can dowhatever we can to help alleviate similar prices that might occurduring the winter 2001-2002,” Schuring said.

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