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Show Mountain Fuel to Ask Rate Increase SALT LAKE CITY Mountain Moun-tain Fuel Supply Company announced an-nounced recently that as a result re-sult of significant new cost increases in-creases it must now pay for natural na-tural gas purchased from pipeline pipe-line and field sources, it has no alternative but to file an application ap-plication with the Utah Public Service Commission for an annual an-nual rate increase of $3,450,541 in Utah. "All we seek in this application appli-cation is an offset to the higher high-er costs we are now paying for natural gas purchased from others," said B. Z. Kastler, Co. president. "We are now absorbing absor-bing all of these higher costs, some since last June, but we cannot continue doing this without rate relief if we are to remain financially sound.' "It is important that we pay these increases so as to retain the gas supply involved for use in this area," he continued. "In view of the tremendous demand for gas, we cannot afford to take any action that would jeopardize our supply." The Company proposed that the increase be uniformly allocated allo-cated on the basis of 2.156 cents per Mcf (thousand cubic feet) to all current rate sche- dules except those in the Roos-evelt-Myton-Duchesne area to be increased by 3.271 cents per Mcf because of the higher rates prevailing there Under this method of allocation allo-cation Mountain Fuel's average residential customer in Utah (who uses 180,000 cubic feet of gas a year) would pay an additional $4.51 annually for natural gas service. This would be an increase of about 3.2 The increase to firm industrial mustomers would be about 0 and to large industrial customers custom-ers about 8. "Even with this increase and the others we have received recently, re-cently, natural gas is still the most economical fuel or energy ener-gy available in this area for residential use," Mr. Kastler said. "Our residential rates today to-day are only slightly higher than they were in 1939, but in the years since 1939 the cost of living has increased by more than 230 percent." In its rate increase application, applica-tion, Mountain Fuel said the total to-tal cost of the gas purchase increases in-creases it is now required to pay is $4,042,807, or which a-mount a-mount $3,450,541 is allocable to Utah natural gas service and $592,266 to Wyoming natural gas service. The Company will file soon for an increase in Wyoming. |