For the third consecutive year, Oregon state regulators on Monday lowered the retail charges in natural gas rates for two of the state’s three private-sector gas distribution utilities. The lower charges are effective Tuesday and will bring continued lower winter gas bills, although the rates for one utility stayed essentially flat.

A majority of gas customers in Oregon will pay a little less to heat their homes and businesses this coming winter, said a spokesperson for the Oregon Public Utility Commission (PUC). The three-member PUC lowered the charges for NW Natural and Cascade Natural Gas Corp., and raised by 0.1% the gas rates for Spokane, WA-based Avista Utilities’ Oregon customers.

PUC Natural Gas Program Manager Lori Koho called the Avista small hike “barely noticeable,” and emphasized that NW Natural and Cascade customers will “pay a little less” for fuel. “The adjustments vary from company to company due to their different strategies for buying gas. We look at what they are paying once a year when we can pass along the savings to customers.”

Using supplies from Western Canada and the U.S. Rockies region, NW Natural serves northwest Oregon and its major population centers, Avista covers southwest and northeast Oregon, and Cascade has parts of central and northeast Oregon for its territory.

The breakdown in rate changes includes decreases of 2.4% to 6.7% and the fractional increase that amounts to pennies monthly. The changes are broken down by utility as follows:

Even with the modest natural gas charges in recent years, the PUC spokesperson said the state regulators are urging customers to take a series of energy-saving steps, including turning down thermostats, upgrading furnaces and water heating systems to current more efficient models, fully insulating residences and commercial buildings, and/or seeking energy audits from local utilities.

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