High heating bills hit Haines residents after December cold snap
- Chilkat Valley News
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
By Will Steinfeld
Chilkat Valley News
A recent stretch of cold weather, plus high heating oil prices, has been a recipe for budget crunch, residents say. Borough decision makers, however, disagree on what should be done.
The issue started in early December with a persistent cold snap. In the weeks since, residents have started to see fuel bills from that period, with some reporting monthly household heating costs approaching $1,000.
While the cold hit households equally, the associated costs have not. One Haines resident, Don Poling, said paying those elevated bills has been challenging given his month-to-month budgeting.
“We’re on a fixed income and we’re just looking at inflation going up,” Poling said.
It’s not immediately clear what can be done, and the problem certainly isn’t new. The unavoidable cold weather aside, residents have for years complained about highest-in-the-region fuel rates. The Chilkat Valley News has published at least nine articles since 2011 comparing fuel prices in Haines to lower fuel prices nearby — often following price spikes, overall inflation, or in this case, extreme weather.
Currently, the discrepancy isn’t significant. Heating fuel sits at $4.86 per gallon in Haines. That’s just over the $4.84 price at Petro Marine in Skagway, and the $4.64 per-gallon price at Delta Western in Juneau. But the prices are still well above the current national average of $3.62 per gallon
In recent weeks, mayor Tom Morphet has attributed the pricing largely to Delta Western’s status as the valley’s lone fuel supplier, referring to the company as a “monopoly company” at a recent assembly meeting.
Morphet also brought to the meeting a letter he had penned asking the company to lower rates — a “kind and neighborly” message, as he put it. His hope was for the assembly to send the letter as an official borough communication.
His proposal, however, was voted down by assembly members Cheryl Stickler, Gabe Thomas, and Mark Smith, who said they opposed municipal government intervening in pricing decisions of a private corporation.
“I agree with the message but I don’t agree with us sending it,” Thomas said this week. “Sending it from the Haines Assembly, I feel like we already have a bad reputation for overstepping in business.”
Stickler, too, opposed what she said was municipal government intervening in private business, but said she partly agreed with the broader message. “When fuel trucks come into Haines to load and take [fuel] into the interior, even after transportation costs the fuel in the interior is cheaper than in Haines,” Stickler said.
At a higher level, the State of Alaska does regulate pricing in the case of some energy providers — specifically public utilities including Haines’ sole electricity supplier, Alaska Power Company. Rates set by public utilities must be approved by a state board, the Regulatory Commission of Alaska.
Raising concerns with the state, or the state’s congressional delegation, was another possibility floated by Morphet at the meeting.
There is some precedent to the state government looking into local fuel prices. In 2008, the state Attorney General’s office investigated whether or not fuel companies were violating the law by colluding to keep prices high. The investigation found that high statewide fuel prices were often a result of oligopolies — markets with few sellers — particularly in Southeast.
The report, however, found no wrongdoing that would merit state intervention.
“Simply having a ‘high price’ is not illegal by itself,” Attorney General Talis Colberg wrote in the investigation. “Alaska does not impose price controls or ‘caps’ on any product, and there is no ‘price gouging’ law in Alaska.”
It also doesn’t appear that the Regulatory Commission of Alaska has any intention of regulating a company like Delta Western as a public utility.
State statute does include petroleum in the definition of a public utility, so long as the company distributes petroleum “to the public for compensation when the consumer has no alternative in the choice of supplier of a comparable product and service at an equal or lesser price.”
But in an emailed statement this week, regulatory commission information officer Audrey Saylor cited another portion of the statute that exempts “petroleum products delivered by tank, wagon or similar conveyance” from RCA regulation.
Thomas this week did say he saw one other potential solution: using economic development to attract more competition.
“If the mine was to open, would [the mining company] accept only one fuel company?” Thomas said. “Is SEARHC going to tolerate one fuel company when they open a big hospital? I think we’re one industry away from needing more competition.”
As for Morphet, he said he wasn’t opposed to those longer range solutions. But he maintained his letter would have been a prudent start.
“When you look at all the ways we could get relief on prices, kindly asking for some relief is where you start — giving the company an opportunity to do a nice thing,” Morphet said. “We’re here to represent the broad public interest, and the broad public interest is to not have to spend all their money on fuel.”
• This story originally appeared in the Chilkat Valley News.
