A utility company has some rather unusual news and it’s good! UGI says starting next month, customers’ bills will go down by about 10 percent.
The company credits the natural gas industry in our area for making this possible.
People in Factoryville cannot believe what they are hearing.
Gas utility company UGI says starting next month, its gas cost rates will go down by 10.3%.
For the average homeowner, that means monthly heating bills will decrease from $93.83 to $84.17.
“Oh, we`re thrilled. This is a huge help for all of us in this area. This is great,” said Amy Hannah.
“With a large family, [it's] very important because it means I can put more food on my table,” said Greg Purdy.
Even better news, UGI believes there will be another reduction in December, dropping that bill down to about $81.50.
Peter Amendola owns Amendola Pizza and says any bill reduction makes a huge difference.
“For us small businesses or big businesses, it`s very important, “said Amendola.
And UGI says this is all possible due to the natural gas being pulled from the Marcellus Shale here in northeast Pennsylvania.
“Gas is coming from our backyard, we might as well see a benefit from it,” said Purdy.
While UGI`s prices may be falling, the company says its operations are expanding. It plans to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) production facility near Meshoppen.
UGI says that facility will built near the company's natural gas compression station in Wyoming County.
That facility will produce up to 120,000 gallons of liquefied natural gas per day that would supply large truck fleets, such as UPS.
“Running our vehicles on natural gas would be a good thing,” said Purdy. “It burns cleaner. I drive a diesel truck at work and they are dirty.”
Many say they know the Marcellus Shale drilling has been a controversial issue.
“They got the good sides and the bad sides, so we got to take the good with the bad, I guess,” said Amendola. “Now we`re getting good. Yeah, we got the good stuff right now.”
UGI`s liquefied natural gas plant is expected to be up and running by early 2017.
