Consumers are sometimes surprised when they open their natural gas bills.
The rate that their local utility charged this month could be 25 percent higher than it was just last month . That same rate, however, could at the same time be 30 percent lower than it was last year . This leads some consumers to wonder what is going on at the utility. The fact is that natural gas price changes are driven by several different factors, some of which the utility has control over, and others it does not. Some of these costs are subject to regulatory oversight while others are not.