Here’s Why Your Heating Bill Has Been So High

(It’s Not Just The Cold)

CHICAGO (CBS) – Has your Peoples Gas heating bill gone way up the last few months? Especially compared to last year?

There’s a reason for that. Actually, there are many reasons and not all of them have to do with the terrible cold that’s caught Chicago in a mercilessly frigid headlock.

Chicago’s main natural gas provider, Peoples Gas, projected last year that this winter’s gas prices would be up. As reported by Crain’s, Peoples Gas estimated the average cost to heat a home from November 2013 through March 2014 would total about $800, a 13% rise from last year’s five-month total of $710.

Part of this difference comes from a $56 million delivery rate hike the Illinois Commerce Commission granted Peoples Gas back in June 2013. Usually, the cost of delivering gas (and not the gas itself) counts for about a third of the typical heating bill, but could be more. As Crain’s points out in their article, the rest of the bill is is the cost of the gas, which customers get at cost.

So it costs more for Peoples Gas to deliver the natural gas to you, but has the gas price itself risen?

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