High gas bills continue to burden families across Southern California

The Frasur family has lived in the same place for a quarter of a century. However, in the past two months, they've been hit with astronomically high gas bills. 

Like so many others that were hit with brutal bills from the Southern California Gas Company, the Frasurs were dismayed when they opened their invoice from the utility company. 

"We were shocked," said Jim Frasur. "December bill was $800 then our January bill was over $2,000."

If the $2,000 bill wasn't bad enough, the Frasurs were told to pay the entire amount in cash when they were told they had insufficient funds.

"They sent notice taking me off the automatic payment and that we were on cash only," said Frasur. 

The utility company said they were unsure why Frasur was unenrolled from the auto-pay program and would look into the issue. KCAL News has not received a reply as of 4 p.m. Tuesday.

The company announced a $50 "climate credit" to offset the abnormally high costs. SoCalGas blamed the increased prices to high demand and reduced supply. 

"Prices for natural gas have dropped, resulting in a 68% decrease for SoCalGas customers in residential and small businesses, compared to prices in January," SoCalGas said in a statement. 

To save money while living on a fixed income, the retired Frasurs decided to use portable heaters and dawn sweaters to stay warm in their cold rooms. Despite, the high bills they've kept their humor. 

"I actually thought about paying it in pennies," said Frasur.