Thermostats down, bills up

When he opened his latest utility bill, Lloyd Phillips could only think that the gas meter was broken.

It wasn’t. He owes $525 for keeping his 1,200-square-foot house warm.

“I almost passed out,” the Spokane resident said.

Working two jobs, Phillips makes about $50 a month too much to qualify for state heating assistance. He’s been swimming in bills for a while, but the cost of heat helped prompt him to file for bankruptcy, he said. “We need help.”

Analysts point to a combination of hurricanes, geopolitical instability and a wicked snap of cold weather behind the recent high heating costs. Whatever the causes, families say they’re hurting – especially after months of gasoline price spikes and ever-rising health insurance bills.

Several dozen randomly chosen Inland Northwest residents were contacted by The Spokesman-Review in recent days and asked to share information on how much they are now paying to keep warm. Although a handful said they were not affected much by the higher bills, most said the price hikes have had profound impacts.

Kim Puckett, a secretary at a public school in Spokane, said her family’s last utility bill was $260. Several rooms in her north Spokane house are kept closed and unheated. The family wears slippers and sweaters. They spent the coldest parts of December huddled around a fireplace. Their gas-heated radiant system was set as low as possible. “I can only turn it down to 55 degrees,” she explained.

Puckett said she and her husband worked 15 years to become financially stable and buy a house and car. Heating bills have sucked away every spare cent. In September, they drained their savings to pay off a $1,000 balance with Avista Utilities and vowed to use the least power possible.

November arrived with a 24 percent natural gas price increase. Then came December with three weeks of below-freezing weather. “There were some nights that were pretty darn cold. We just had to turn everything off,” Puckett said, pausing. “I’m angry.”

The last utility bill became the little envelope that nearly stole Christmas. “We’ve decided we’re going to cut our own wood this summer,” Puckett said. “We’ll make it. We’ll have to eat cheaper – lots of rice and Top Ramen. It’s a good thing my kids like peanut butter sandwiches.”

Vern Krockmeyer, a 79-year-old Post Falls resident on a fixed income, said his latest bill doubled over the same period last year. He recently paid $225.50 to heat his 1,300-square-foot home, even with two bedrooms blocked off. “The house is extremely well insulated,” Krockmeyer said. “I’ll be all right, but I can see many younger families, with higher overhead such as mortgages, car payments, feeding and educating children, having to make some drastic changes.”

Nationwide, the price for natural gas jumped about 40 percent, which is well above what was experienced by customers of Avista Utilities, said spokeswoman Catherine Markson. She admitted this fact may be “cold comfort,” but “these are challenging times, and it’s across the board. … We were able to mitigate because we bought ahead and had some natural gas in storage.”

The cold weather played a major role in the larger bills, Markson said. The utility supplied 8.9 million therms of natural gas to its customers in November. In December, the number jumped to 20 million therms. Markson also stressed that the utility was not profiting from consumers’ pain.

“Currently what we’re charging isn’t covering the cost of the gas,” she said.

Jason Thackston, director of gas supply for Avista, said it’s too early to tell if prices will drop much by next winter. More production will return as the Gulf Coast recovers from hurricanes, but natural gas prices are also influenced by international demand and the price of oil.

“We just don’t know,” Thackston said, when asked for a prediction. “There are so many factors driving natural gas prices today.”

Such uncertainty is especially nerve-wracking for those on fixed incomes, like Spokane resident Dorothy Aylor. She uses Avista’s “comfort” billing program, which averages the cost of power over the course of a year. But even this program is not immune to the increase – in the last few months, Aylor’s monthly bill for heating her 2,100-square-foot home has crept up from $129 to $169.

“So far we have been able to keep up, but as semi-retired seniors, we are apprehensive about the future,” she said.

Many people are looking to the region’s thick forests for help. Hayden resident Jackie Arine said her power bill from Kootenai Electric Cooperative has remained relatively low and steady over the last eight years, thanks to an ample supply of firewood. Arine said her house is cold when the stove is not burning, but “no one complains, everybody dresses warmly and we are all comfortable – as long as I never run out of wood.”

In a cold winter climate like the Inland Northwest, it’s no surprise that heating bills can be painful. But Margaret Belote, director of energy programs for the Spokane Neighborhood Action Programs, said this year has been “horrendous.” The agency has used state, federal and utility grants to help about 4,100 households in the Spokane area pay heating bills this season. Another 1,600 are on the waiting list.

The agency helps families who are at or slightly above federal poverty levels, which for a family of four means an income of roughly $1,600 per month. Belote said the latest utility bills have been high enough to sting families well above the poverty line. “One of the things that tells me it’s serious is we’re getting tons and tons of calls from households over the income guidelines,” she said.

The federal government recently released $100 million in emergency funds to help with heating costs. Belote said she has her fingers crossed another cold snap – especially one on the East Coast – won’t suck away the money. Help for Washington residents is also coming from Olympia.

Gov. Christine Gregoire last month proposed adding $7.6 million to the state’s heating and energy assistance program for low-income people this winter. She’s also pushing for millions of dollars more in tax credits for utility companies that give discounts to low-income families. The governor is also asking lawmakers to set aside $16 million for higher energy costs for schools and state buildings.

The energy assistance requests are expected to be one of the first things out of the gate when the legislative session starts Monday. But Republicans – who three months ago proposed shrinking energy bills by temporarily capping state energy taxes – are blasting Gregoire for not being quicker. Waiting until January, Sen. Jim Honeyford said, “is like waiting until the snow melts to shovel your driveway.”

Downtown Spokane resident Ryan Bishop said he’s already in the hole because of high heating costs. His most recent bill was $396 to heat his 1,100-square-foot home. Bishop wants to switch to Avista’s comfort billing program, but first he must pay off a $700 balance. “Forgive me if I seem bitter, but it just seems like everyone is trying to gouge the consumer these days,” he said. “I feel like I am getting nickel-and-dimed to death.”

The higher cost seems to be causing grumbling all around. Tim Lorentz, of Spokane, said he and his wife often struggle over the setting for the thermostat. He signs the utility bill checks and wants the heat kept low. She complains that their toddlers are “turning into popsicles” and turns it back up, Lorentz said. Last month they paid $440 to heat their home.

The higher prices are prompting many to get creative with their energy saving techniques. Spokane attorney Michael F. Cressey said this year he took down his Christmas lights early, turns off the heat during the day and has finally given in to his dog’s attempts to sleep on his bed. Even with a cooler house and a warm dog on his bed, Cressey’s latest utility bill was $420.

Cynthia Kolp said she spent $200 last month heating her 1,000-square-foot Spokane home, despite turning down the heat, stuffing rags in cracks around the window and taping shut the mail slot in the door.

Spokane resident Jim Jones said he and his partner plan to cut back on summer travel because of the extra cost. They recently spent $200 on weather stripping and a programmable thermostat for their 97-year-old home. “I would have new windows installed, but I can’t afford them at this time,” Jones said. His last bill would have been $597, but thanks to comfort billing the cost will be spread out over 12 months at $224 per month.

Even with a wood pellet stove and a fireplace, Nikki Pagel said her heating bill jumped to $153 last month, which is about double what it was last year year. Pagel, of Spokane, said she only uses the gas furnace about four hours a day. “How much more do they think people can take?” she asked. “I’m just glad we still are working age and with an income and not a senior. I don’t know how they do it.”

Extra money for heat could cool the local economy. Christian Rose, a property manager with Spokane’s Inland Real Estate, said he plans to delay capital improvements at the apartment buildings he manages. His latest gas bill was about $8,900 for 55 units.

“We can’t raise rents fast enough to recover this heat,” Rose said. “It eats our lunch. … It’ll cost everybody. It will definitely affect the economy.”

Martha Lagerstrom said she and her family are trying to find ways to cut back on other expenses, such as dropping cable television. They already keep their heat turned low, wear extra layers of clothes, keep certain rooms closed off from heat and decided against hanging outside Christmas lights this year. Still, the family paid $220 last month to heat their 1,100-square-foot Spokane home. All the bills, including water and garbage, just seem to keep on rising.

“The public can only absorb so much before we fold,” Lagerstrom said.