JACKSON - With natural gas prices expected to remain high this year, industry officials say most consumers can plan to get higher utility bills and pay more to keep their homes cool this summer.
Cooler weather caused a recent price drop, but natural gas prices are still more than double prices a year ago.
And with inventory levels at a 27-year low and no slackening in demand, natural gas prices are expected to rise more and remain high through the winter heating season.
That means higher heating bills next winter for the 53 percent of U.S. households that use natural gas for space heating. And since electric utilities use gas to generate electricity, high gas prices mean consumers will pay more to stay cool.
Entergy Mississippi is raising its rates 8 percent, blaming the high cost of natural gas. The rate hike will raise the price of 1000 kilowatt hours of electricity from $83.05 to $89.84.
"We use natural gas, coal and nuclear power," Entergy spokesman Robert Lesley said. "What we have done is rely more on nuclear power and purchases of electricity on the open market. But some of our plants have to burn natural gas."
Mississippi Valley Gas isn't projecting how much consumer gas prices may increase. The state's natural gas consumers are charged a blended price that includes delivery charges and the price the gas company pays to buy natural gas.
The price of the gas is not regulated, and natural gas price increases are passed through to the consumer. The delivery rate is regulated by the Mississippi Public Service Commission, and Mississippi Valley Gas hasn't asked for a rate increase in the past year.
"We want to warn consumers that we think their total gas bill will be higher than last year," said Phil Hardwick, Mississippi Valley's vice president of economic development and community relations. "We have no projections. But there is an expectation of significant increases in prices."
Higher gas prices really take a bite out of the fertilizer industry because it accounts for up to 90 percent of the cost of ammonia - the main ingredient in nitrogen fertilizers.
Yazoo City-based Mississippi Chemical Corp. blamed increases in the price of domestic natural gas as well as the downturn in the agricultural sector for the May 15 Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing of the company and nine of its subsidiaries.
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