Mar 14, 2016 4 min read

WAYNESBURG – Residents of Aleppo and surrounding township raised concerns to the state Public Utility Commission last week about its plans to transfer dozens of residents to another natural gas provider.

The PUC held a pubic input hearing Wednesday night at Waynesburg University to hear testimony about the applications filed by Mountain Energy Ltd. and Peoples Gas Co.

Mountain Energy was asking permission to transfer 77 of its remaining customers to Peoples Gas and to abandon 23 miles of gas lines that now serve 18 customers, including Windy Gap Church in Aleppo Township.

“We, the customers, have experienced extreme anxiety from this abandonment issue,” said Hazel Koffler, who lives on Martin Road in Aleppo.

She and others were there to address PUC Deputy Chief Administrative Judge Mark A. Hoyer and other state officials abut the pending application and portions of it they think should be revised.

When Mountain Energy requested permission from the PUC to abandon its natural gas services in December 2013, dismayed customers began demanding answers. They later learned that Mountain Energy had sold more than 170 wells to Leatherwood Inc., a Consol Energy subsidiary, beginning in 2006. The PUC filed a notice of intervention the following month and the court ruled in April 2014 that Mountain Energy sold the wells without first applying for a certificate of public convenience with the PUC.

Now, two years later, the amended application is making its way through the permitting process once more.

Like others who came to document their objections and make recommendations, Koffler praised Peoples Gas for the work it is presently doing on the miles of old, leaking pipelines it is scheduled to inherit.

Customers still remember the “November crisis” of 2014 when gas pressure was suddenly lost to many homes and the county commissioners and the PUC demanded that heat be restored to the homeowners as winter set in. Peoples Gas was contacted and agreed to open their delivery lines into the Mountain Energy pipelines, then began doing the much-needed repairs as customers and PUC field supervisors called them in.

Koffler asked that the court to make the application “be in the best interest of the customer.” She added that new customers should be given access to gas hookups in Peoples Gas lines in the future and that free gas users “are treated fairly, equally and justly,” in accordance with prevailing state law.

Those receiving free gas from wells that were deeded into their property rights came to the hearing to express their own concerns about losing their gas when wells were plugged or otherwise abandoned.

Testimony was given by free gas recipients that their original leases guaranteeing them gas in exchange for productions rights would be broken if free gas was denied them.

Those whose gas lines due to be abandoned also expressed concern that the settlements offered customers would not cover the expenses that would be incurred when switching to another heating source.

“This is going to be very hard on us. We’re a very small congregation,” said Connie Jones, secretary of Windy Gap Church, as she ran her finger across the big map that was brought to the meeting that showed where the church was located, about a mile from the nearest Peoples Gas line that would stay in operation.

She asked Mountain Energy Vice President Bradley Bledsoe and attorney Dan Clearfield, who represents both Mountain Energy and Leatherwood in the proceedings, if they could get some assistance with the switch.

“Switching to propane is going to be very expensive,” she said. “If we have to fill a 500-gallon propane tank in the middle of winter, we’ll be paying top dollar. Can we get a bigger tank?”

Jones was told larger tanks aren’t an option and in accordance with this application, and the tank will only be filled free of charge once.

The litigation schedule includes an evidentiary hearing in Pittsburgh before Hoyer on March 28. A final public meeting will be held June 30 before the suspension date, which is now set for July 1.