Dear Valued Customer,
As your next Austell Gas System bill is distributed, you may see a significant increase in your bill this billing cycle. Although you may not have used more natural gas than normal, the price increase comes from the market volatility from the frigid cold that swept across the nation towards the end of January 2026.
As you may remember, those frigid temperatures moved well into southern region of the United States including the gulf coast and brought freezing rain along with it. Among the states that had harsh freezing temperatures were Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma which is where much of the U.S. natural gas production is located. Because of where those production sites are located, they are susceptible to freezing when temperatures quickly drop below freezing, therefore restricting or blocking natural gas flow. This is called “freeze-offs”.
These freeze-offs occurred late in January 2026, which in turn, caused massive natural gas production loss, about 20 Bcf/day, while the nation was at near record demand. This phenomenon spiked the cost of natural gas dramatically not only for Georgia residents, but for much of the nation. Austell Gas works closely with its asset manager to keep the cost of natural gas for our customers as low as it can, which includes multiple different strategies.
For the entire year of 2025, Austell Gas’ rates averaged $1.08 per therm below other companies using the same rate structure according to the apples-to-apples comparison on the GA PSC website. A link to that comparison is provided below. We value keeping our rates as competitive as possible for our customers and community.
If you need assistance or have any questions, please feel free to call us at 770-948-1841 to speak with a Customer Service Representative.
Sincerely,
Austell Gas System
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