The Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas) announced Jan. 6 a contribution of $1 million to the Gas Assistance Fund, a program that helps income-qualified customers pay their natural gas bills.
“We know that these higher prices have a real impact on our customers. But we want them to know that there is help," Gillian Wright, SoCalGas vice president and chief customer officer, said in a news release on the LaQuinta City website.
"We have valuable information on how to conserve energy, programs to assist with managing your energy usage and an unprecedented contribution to our Gas Assistance Fund, which will help our most vulnerable customers pay their bills," Wright added in the news release.
This assistance comes at a time when customers are facing natural gas bills that are double or even triple last winter's bills, according to a news release on SoCalGas' website. Although the price of natural gas is described as historically high in the western United States, SoCalGas said it doesn't set the price of natural gas, which national and regional markets help determine.
According to the release, SoCalGas purchases natural gas on behalf of residential and small business customers and then bills this cost to customers with no markup. This means SoCalGas does not profit from soaring gas commodity prices.
For further information on what is behind unprecedented gas prices, SoCalGas cites the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). According to the EIA, a major contributor to high bills is the increased demand caused by widespread, below-normal temperatures across the West Coast (including Washington and Oregon).
While demand is high, the supply of natural gas is reduced to the West Coast from Canada and the Rocky Mountains. To top it off, the West Coast is experiencing decreased interstate pipeline capacity due to pipeline maintenance in West Texas and low natural gas storage levels.
The Gas Assistance Fund is a joint initiative between SoCalGas and United Way of Greater Los Angeles, the news release said.
The program works with nonprofit organizations throughout their service territory assisting income-qualified customers with paying their natural gas bill through a one-time grant of up to $100 per household. Customers can determine if they qualify for the program by visiting this link: socalgas.com/gaf.
Additionally, SoCalGas has recommended that individuals experiencing hardship explore other assistance programs such as the California Alternate Rates for Energy (CARE), the Energy Savings Assistance Program (ESAP) or the Arrearage Management Plan (AMP).