Their natural gas bills went up almost 13,000% — and Kansas said they’re on their own

Most businesses in Kansas and Missouri contract for the natural gas they need. They use companies such as Kansas Gas Service and Spire Missouri to deliver the gas to them. This February, under questionable circumstances, the natural gas prices increased from about $2.50 to $622.00 per unit — a 24,000% increase in 16 days.

To confront this economic devastation, a customer coalition was formed to fight this price gouging.

Among those customers are the city of Mulberry — a city in Kansas with 577 residents, reStart — a homeless agency in Kansas City that serves all homeless populations, and Ace Pattern and Foundry — a small business that has operated in Kansas City, Kansas, for 50 years.

The price of gas to Mulberry, based on the industry standard Platts Gas Daily index, was $2.54 per unit of gas on Feb. 1. On Feb. 13, Mulberry was charged, but has refused to pay $329.61 per unit, again the Platts price. Mulberry has refused to pay BP Energy the 12,976% price increase applied over 12 days. “The Platts Gas Daily index prices charged to our city by BP Energy must be wrong — how can they be accurate?” asked former Mayor Randy Jones.

The homeless agency reStart typically receives a February natural gas bill of about $1,500 to $2,000. Its gas bill in February was $48,000. “I was shocked when reStart received the February gas bill. It was 25 to 50 times higher than any prior bill. I thought it was some kind of mistake, that it could not be accurate. We are a homeless agency — we have to be able to keep the homeless warm, keep them healthy,” said Donna Bradford of reStart.

Lorie Brunner is president of Ace Pattern and Foundry. When her business received its February natural gas bill, she was shocked and thought it couldn’t be accurate. “The supplier claimed it was a correct bill, but we have refused to pay it. Something is just not right,” said Brunner.

The economic devastation has been widespread. Kansas Gas Service had $451 million of increased costs. Kansas residential ratepayers will pay 79% of that $451 million, and small businesses will pay 9% of it.

Our coalition requested that the Kansas Corporation Commission help us obtain documents to find answers about what went wrong. The KCC looks out for ratepayers in Kansas — surely it would help us, we thought.

We were wrong.

The KCC refused, stating that the problem might be “market manipulation of wholesale markets.” Instead, it sent this Kansas economic mess to Washington, D.C.

“I have no idea what the KCC is talking about,” said Brunner. “Look, we are a small business in Kansas City. We just want to determine what the real, accurate price for February should be under our contract.”

“I think that the KCC and Mulberry share the same goal: to determine if the February gas prices were accurate, and whether those prices can be charged during a disaster,” said Jones. “We are a small Kansas town. We aren’t trying to investigate wholesale gas markets.”

Failure to determine accurate index prices for February could cost Kansans hundreds of millions of dollars. That is certainly not the intent of the Kansas Corporation Commission. We all need to work together.

Jim Zakoura is legal counsel for the Natural Gas Transportation Customer Coalition. He has practiced energy law in Kansas and Missouri for 40 years. The NGTCC is a coalition of more than 500 members that include public and private schools, universities and community colleges, hospitals, the faith community, Kansas and Missouri municipalities, service organizations, and small and large businesses throughout Kansas and western Missouri.