[sike0000]

OK, I got my gas bill for last month and it is 300 bucks. A majority of the bill is for gas cost recovery. The previous bill was 400.

I keep reading different things about this, and want to know if anyone has a clear understanding of what it is and can explain it to me in simple terms.

We moved last year and this automatically switched us to a new gas company. My gas bill is easily twice as much now. My house is bigger but the furnace is more efficient and the house more air tight. I do have a gas dryer now so that may be part of the reason. But I did buy a programmable thermostat to help.

The gas cost recovery cost easily triples or even quadruples my bill. Something like 8 dollars per unit of gas?

Is this normal? Is it because of the cold winter? I am in Wayne county.

[dave w]

I e-mailed the michigan regulatory commision and i got a phone call back within 1 hour . I complained of the outragous nat gas prices and explained that charts of the nat gas futures showed that gas prices were falling and our bills are going up.He told me that prices are set at the beginning of the season and gas is bought from out of state and canada.Were sitting on tons of the stuff but they wont refine it or whatever. He told me that the commision reviews gas charges at the end of the season and and are not allowed to make a profit on the gas and give a credit if applicable for over charges. We are at the mercy of the out of state suppliers and they can charge what ever they want for a cubic foot of gas. I think the supplies learned a lesson from the gasoline dealers association on how to screw the public out of every dollar they can.

[wagonproject]

I paid a little over $1500 last month for gas...

[Coldjensens]

Originally Posted by wagonproject

I paid a little over $1500 last month for gas...

me too

[wanderer74]

If anyone is paying $1500 a month for gas, I'm gonna stop complaining so much about my $350! Some people were posting here a while ago that their cost was under $200 and I was thinking there must be something wrong with my house.

[Bydand]

Wow, $1500 a month for gas. I guess I am not going to complain about my $250 bill I got last month then at all.

[sike0000]

My bill was 1200 bucks for the last billing cycle. But we called and found out they had estimated our gas usage for the previous months. No one had come to read the meter. So we told them the current reading and that lowered the bill.

300 seems high. But reading these others posts maybe I am lucky!

But definitely check your meters against the bill. Still wondering about that gas recovery portion.

[Cliffie]

I have never heard the term "gas cost recovery" before; what does that even mean? I am on the budget plan to make the winter bills less painful -- my bill is $85/month, every month of the world. I would not have been very damn happy to get slapped with a heat bill for $1500, that's for sure.

[MI-Roger]

Gas Cost Recovery is your cost for the natural gas the utility purchases and resells to you.

Utilites purchase gas in the summer months when prices are typically lower and store it in underground caverns until it is needed in the winter. Unfortunately, extremely cold winters drive up consumption and results in utilities being forced to buy gas on the typically much costlier winter season Spot Market to satisfy customer demand. For some strange reason natural gas prices are dropping this winter, making the summer stockpile purchases a high cost inventory.

I also have Budget Plan billing. Some people don't like receiving $125 gas bills in July and August, but it sure beats receiving a $400 bill in January with all the Holiday Charges too!

[Cliffie]

But we still tremble when the end of the year comes and we find out whether we owe them, or they owe us. I have a feeling I know which way it's going to go this year.