Austin residents to be affected by higher natural gas prices due to late February cold snap in southern U.S.

At a recent special meeting of the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, members were told heating bills could be $400 more, with charges not expected to show up until September due to cold weather in the southern part of the United States in late February.  Mark Nibaur, General Manager of Austin Utilities spoke with KAUS and stated that the organization had to pay substantially more for natural gas because of the cold weather in the deep south…

Nibaur went on to state that despite the cold weather, the local system worked well, and he added that Austin Utilities had a number of measures in place to keep the price of natural gas down in such a situation…

Nibaur added that because of the weather, Austin Utilities was forced to enact what was thought to be a first-ever natural gas peak alert…

The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission is launching a formal investigation into the gas price spike. Nibaur stated that anyone with questions during this process may contact Austin Utilities at 507-433-8886.