Most gas customers in Massachusetts should see lower March bill
BOSTON -- There is good news for homeowners. You can expect a reprieve on your upcoming gas bills. There is bad news however, it may not be a lot.
The price of natural gas has gone down in recent weeks. By law, an adjustment must be made so you don't get overcharged. The Massachusetts Department of Utilities just approved the changes.
"It will reduce gas customer bills between 4% and 5% when people are really struggling this winter. It could make a difference," says Rebecca Tepper, Secretary Energy and Environmental Affairs.
While natural gas prices do impact electricity prices, Tepper says electric bills will not be affected.
"Electric rates don't change in the winter because they are fixed price contracts," explained Tepper.
The changes come despite natural gas prices being down 35% since the start of the year. Economists say the warm winter in the United States and Europe is contributing to a decrease in demand. The war in Ukraine also plays a factor.
"Supply is restricted by all the events around the world, but it is really the demand side easing, and the easing of demand, that has allowed prices to fall back a bit," said Peter Ireland, a Boston College economics professor.
Ireland went on to say that regulators are always lagging behind changes in the market. He says they do so to make sure your gas bills do not fluctuate drastically. In order to see major utility bill drops, Ireland believes both the United States and Europe will need to continue to see a mild winter coupled with a mild summer.
WBZ reached out to Eversource for comment on the recent changes. Here is what they said:
"We recently experienced a regional supply price reduction for natural gas, resulting in a cost of gas adjustment that will be passed through to some of our customers (former NSTAR Gas territory). An average customer using 126 therms per month will see an approximately 25% reduction in supply price from $1.0378 per them to $0.7779 per therm, or about $33 on their bill. While this price reduction is good news for those customers, we also want to remind them that energy use impacts their overall bill, and the potential for colder weather during the next couple of months could drive individual usage up and offset this cost of gas change.
After reaching historic highs this past year, the price of natural gas has been extremely volatile in recent months and remains so today, and we caution that further changes to the cost of natural gas are possible either way in accordance with state law. Additionally, we do not have control over natural gas market prices. We do not earn a profit on the cost of gas and only charge customers what we pay gas producers.
We highly encourage customers who may need help paying their bill to take advantage of the many assistance programs available and we are ready to work with all customers one-on-one to connect them with payment options and bill assistance programs."