Denton residents will see an increase in their gas rates starting in October after Denton City Council unanimously voted to pass a rate-increase settlement with Atmos Energy at its Aug. 18 regular meeting.
What’s happening?
The unanimous vote was prompted after a presentation from Chief Financial Officer Matt Hamilton, who said Atmos made a filing to increase rates for the upcoming fiscal year.
The average Denton residential customer will see a $13.37 monthly increase, or 14.5%, in their gas bill and the average Denton commercial customer will have a $44.82 increase, or 9.9%, in their monthly bill.
Hamilton said that while the city still sets rates within its jurisdiction, the increases are systemwide. The specific increases were provided for the Denton average resident and commercial property owner.
Denton Mayor Chris Watts and council members George Ferrie and Joe Holland commented that the increase was substantial but Hamilton said since this is a settlement, City Council members could incur larger fees for fighting the settlement instead of just accepting the rate.
Denton City Attorney Mack Reinwand said the city of Denton would be removed from the appeal and would stand alone in the settlement with Atmos instead of with the Atmos City Steering Committee, which negotiated the settlement, and the rate numbers likely would be the same, if not higher.
“I just want to make sure that the community understands the implication of that,” Watts said. “That it could put us in a worse position.”
The rates will be effective Oct. 1, Hamilton said.
The backstory
Denton is part of the Atmos City Steering Committee, which is an 181-member coalition of cities in Texas that represents more than 1 million customers, according to Hamilton's presentation.
The original request from Atmos was for $291.1 million total for customers across the state and the steering committee brought that number down to $260.5 million, saving member cities $30.6 million total.
