Here & Now

Tom Content on Global Energy Prices and Winter Heating Costs

Frederica Freyberg:
As temperatures cool down with the advent of winter not far behind, it will soon be time to turn on the furnace. And like gasoline and diesel prices, the cost to heat your home is expected to go up by an average of about 8.7% for the season, according to national forecasts. Tom Content of the Citizens Utility Board has been tracking the trend. And thanks very much for being here.

Tom Content:
Great to be with you.

Frederica Freyberg:
So is this just like add it to the list of the things that are costing more right now?

Tom Content:
There is so much. I mean, we’re seeing it everywhere. And unfortunately, we had a high heating cost winter last year, in part, because of how expensive natural gas was, but mainly because of how frigid the winter was. We had those double stretches of subzero temperatures that hit us hard. And so people were firing up their furnaces. And then the next month, they were looking at their utility bills going, what the heck happened because my prices are off the charts. And we’re concerned that that could be a problem again this winter.

Frederica Freyberg:
Speaking of temperatures though, this El Niño weather pattern could help, could be warmer. It’s always kind of not known.

Tom Content:
No, it’s not known. And we’re waiting for the official — for an official forecast from the Energy Information Administration won’t come out til that next month. And that one will actually incorporate forecasts as the forecast of temperatures as well. And the utilities themselves often put out forecasts. And we’re still waiting on that. But the information we have so far shows, especially for people in rural Wisconsin, that use propane or in areas of the state that still use heating oil, that this could be a tough winter.

Frederica Freyberg:
Because the heating oil price projections put it up more than 30%. But is that a small number of people who use oil in Wisconsin?

Tom Content:
Yes, it is. It’s a very small amount. I just looked and it’s about 35,000 households across the state that use it. And this would be a good year to get rid of heating oil because the prices are off the charts, because heating oil is really directly affected by crude oil prices. Propane is also affected, but not quite as much by crude oil prices. But it is affected.

Frederica Freyberg:
So propane and electric, I understand, represent about 500,000 households together. And those price projections are at, like, about 9%. Where do people mostly use propane and electric because, what, like 65% of people use natural gas.

Tom Content:
Correct. Two thirds of Wisconsin’s use natural gas and propane is the farm — the rural areas of Wisconsin are often on propane because the natural gas system hasn’t connected them. And so a lot of rural Wisconsinites should really reach out to their propane dealers and maybe get multiple quotes this year just to see what deal you can get and maybe try to lock that in because the prices are concerning. But there are opportunities to convert to natural gas in some areas now. And so that’s an option to think about.

Frederica Freyberg:
So you also say that there are other ways that people can potentially save, including through the program Focus on Energy and that is, like, legitimate.

Tom Content:
Yeah, that’s a statewide program that everybody pays into who’s a utility customer in Wisconsin pays into Focus every year. And so what we want to see is more people take advantage of Focus and get the benefits. So this is the program that used to provide LED light bulbs to everybody. And now LED prices have come down so much that Focus provides incentives in other ways. They actually have incentives if you want to add solar to your house. They have incentives on a highly efficient furnace. They have incentives on insulation and air sealing. And the biggest thing and newest thing that they have is they have funding through the Inflation Reduction Act that Congress passed a few years ago for a whole variety of programs that help all customers. But actually there’s extra incentives for low-income customers that are built into that. And so people should really take a look at the Focus on Energy website — it’s focusonenergy.com. And there’s a really handy “Get Started” button on there that you can then enter in your information and even your income, and it’ll let you know the kinds of things that you’re eligible for. So that’s a really important thing to know.

Frederica Freyberg:
The other thing that you are watching is a price hike on the horizon from some utility companies coming up at the start of the new year. What’s that?

Tom Content:
So both We Energies and Wisconsin Public Service — so a lot of the eastern half of Wisconsin are in for rate hikes right in front of the Public Service Commission right now. Our group, the consumer advocate, is involved in those cases to try to bring down the size of those increases. And so we’ve been vocal on that, trying to target high profits and other issues. There’s a public hearing coming up this Tuesday on Zoom and in Green Bay that people could participate in and have a say before those cases are decided.

Frederica Freyberg:
All right. Tom Content, thanks very much. Thanks for your work.

Tom Content:
All right. Thank you so much.