In addition to usage fees, Columbia Gas of Ohio customers pay a fixed rate charge that has nothing to do with gas consumption and that amount is set to increase.
Opponents of the fixed rate increase argued in the Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday that it is not in the public's interest.
Justice Pat DeWine asked Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) attorney Julian Johnson how raising rates benefits customers.
"Can you explain that?" DeWine asked.
"Well, it benefits customers because customers will not receive safe and reliable service unless Columbia has [enough funding]."
"That's kind of just an answer for any rate thing, right?" DeWine asked.
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In 2023, PUCO said it would allow Columbia Gas to increase its fixed rate charges from about $36.15 to $58.01 by 2027. It's a smaller change than the increase to $80 the company originally requested, so PUCO also let Columbia Gas end one of its costly energy efficiency programs.
Columbia Gas still has an energy efficiency program for low-income households.
The Environmental Law & Policy Center and Citizens' Utility Board of Ohio appealed PUCO's decision, arguing that it didn't fulfill two parts of PUCO's own three-part test for approving these kinds of agreements. The groups said the agreement did not benefit ratepayers and public interest, and that it violated regulatory practices.
Attorney Daniel Abrams spoke on behalf of the Environmental Law & Policy Center. He told justices that it didn't make sense for Columbia Gas to raise fixed rates, while ending the program those rates were meant to supplement.
"The commission and the court's basis for approving fixed charge design was the growth of energy efficiency programs, which led customers to use less gas, thereby reducing the utility sales and revenues," Abrams said.
He said he wasn't asking the court to get rid of fixed rates entirely, but argued that $58 was exorbitant.
"We argue that the commission's approval of the high fixed charges in this case are simply out of balance," Abrams said.
Abrams said in 2008, Columbia's fixed rate charges were about $12. That tripled to more than $36 in 2025. Abrams said if that went up to the agreed $58, it would make up about 70% of customers bills.
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Attorney Melissa Thompson, speaking on behalf of Columbia Gas, said that while an energy efficiency program was eliminated, the agreement benefitted customers in other ways.
"Specifically, the stipulation lowered Columbia's requested increase from $221 million to $68.1 million...the stipulations also lowered the rate-based amount that Columbia's were collecting by $55 million," Thompson told the court's justices.
Thompson said the court had to decide if the agreement was reasonable as a whole.
Johnson argued that compromises benefitted rate payers and that the increase was reasonable based on the way that Columbia changed its billing.
It may be weeks or months before the state's Supreme Court justices decide if PUCO correctly followed its own regulations when it approved the agreement with Columbia Gas.