WATCH: Natural gas bills going up and the CCA is to blame

(The Center Square) – Thousands of Cascade Natural Gas customers can expect their power bills to go up again soon, which the utility attributes to the Climate Commitment Act (CCA) and Washington’s Clean Energy Transformation Act (CETA).

The Kennewick-based utility which provides natural gas to 220,000 residential, commercial, and industrial customers primarily in Western and Central Washington, sent a notice inside power bills this month indicating they filed a March 31 approval request with the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission to collect “compliance charges and issue credits associated with the Carbon Compliance Act.”

The notice goes on to explain the cap-and-invest program is “designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 95% of 1990 levels by 2050.”

Some customers will see their bills go down if the UTC approves Cascade’s request, that is if they were connected to service before July 25, 2021. The notice indicates those residential customers will see monthly bills go down by about $1.88 ...