Wichita — A lawyer for corporate natural gas users has employed the image of 19th-century cannibal Alferd Packer to bolster the industry's effort to keep part of a $37 million natural gas refund.
The Kansas Corporation Commission is planning a hearing today on how to distribute the refund, from a settlement after a federal agency ruled that pipeline companies had overcharged customers in the 1980s.
A lawyer for a coalition of large industrial users, called the Midwest Gas Users Association, says the money should go to customers who were overcharged including corporate customers.
But a lawyer for the state Citizens' Utility Ratepayer Board, representing residential and small-business natural gas customers, says it should be spent on programs to help people trapped in "heat-or-eat" situations.
"Some unfortunate individuals are receiving utility bills that exceed their income; few companies could make such a claim," CURB lawyer Niki Christopher wrote in a brief.
The coalition said the state has no legal right to divert the money based on economic class.
"CURB's theory is that residential customers allegedly suffer so badly from recent gas bills that the Commission must take money that belongs to others to relieve the pain," Peterson wrote. "This theory was a favorite of Alferd Packer: 'If things get bad enough, I can eat you.'"
CURB said the commission should honor resolutions passed earlier this year by the Legislature.
The settlement includes about $30 million to be split among customers of Kansas Gas Service, $5 million for Greeley Gas Co. customers in the Kansas City area, and $2 million for customers of UtiliCorp United.
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