Next month, about 14,000 households in Kansas – 350 in Lawrence – will be without heat.

They’ve fallen behind on their natural gas bills, and utility companies are allowed to cut them off after April 1.

It’s been this way for years.

Paul Johnson, a longtime advocate for the poor, says it’s time to do something different. Weatherization kits are nice, he said, and so is emergency aid. But they’re Band-Aids.

Someone living on a fixed income who couldn’t pay their Aquila bill in 2005 can’t pay it in 2006 either, he said.

“Natural gas bills today are twice what they were in 2000,” Johnson said.

But he might have a way to control the ever-rising price of natural gas.

Johnson, a lobbyist with the Kansas Catholic Conference, wants the state to target properties that waste the most energy.

Armed with a list of the worst offenders, Johnson said, state officials could order, cajole or encourage property owners to make improvements. These properties, he argued, are pushing everybody’s natural gas bills skyward.

“We’re using up our cheapest supply: natural gas. After it’s gone, we’ll be bringing in more from Wyoming, Canada or wherever – and it will be more expensive,” Johnson said.

“You’re not going to find natural gas in Alaska that’s any cheaper than what’s in the attics in Lawrence,” he said.

But is it doable?

Aquila, the Kansas Corporation Commission and most state legislators say no.

At the KCC, spokeswoman Rosemary Foreman said commission members had wrestled with how to get property owners – landlords, especially – to increase conservation efforts.

“Quite frankly, I don’t know how you can force landlords to make improvements they aren’t inclined to make,” she said.

Mike Van Zuiden, who oversees Aquila’s shut-offs in Lawrence, predicted fierce resistance to singling out wasteful properties.

“It’s about freedom,” Van Zuiden said. “I don’t know that anybody can force (property owners) to be in line. I’m not saying it’s right or wrong – the issue, really, is privacy.”

And State Rep. Tom Sloan, R-Lawrence, a member of the House Energy Committee, called Johnson’s proposal “politically unacceptable.”

“It’s a privacy issue,” he said. “You wouldn’t want the KCC or the state to come in and look at your utility bill.”

Instead of the stick, Sloan proposes a carrot. He’s backing a bill – House Bill 2723 – aimed at using tax breaks to coax landlords into installing energy-efficient furnaces, windows, siding and insulation.

“There’s a limit to what government can or should do,” he said. “But we can provide incentives.”

Other options

Sen. Marci Francisco, D-Lawrence, offered a different suggestion – using billing data to set limits on how much aid would be available to tenants in properties that have been shut off in the past.

“The way it is now, (aid) is available whether consumption is reasonable or unreasonable, whether someone is trying to conserve or not,” said Francisco, a member of the Senate Utilities Committee.

“I think help should be limited to reasonable consumption,” she said.

Impoverished tenants, she said, would be more prone to conserve and avoid energy-wasting properties if they knew aid would be limited more than it is already. Eventually, landlords would either improve their properties or lose tenants.

Francisco said she doubted much conservation legislation will become law this year.

“Because this winter has been so mild, people’s bills were high, but they weren’t astronomical,” she said. “Unfortunately, that allowed other issues to grab our attention.”

Priorities

But there’s a lot going on in the budget.

Earlier this year, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius proposed adding:

¢ $1 million to the state’s Low Income Energy Assistance Program;

¢ $2 million to ongoing weatherization efforts;

¢ $2 million to a low-interest loan program for homeowners who aren’t eligible for programs aimed at helping the poor.

Earlier this year, the 23-member Kansas Energy Council made “energy use in the residential sector a top priority,” said Joe Harkins, a special assistant to the governor assigned to the group.

“This is very much a front-burner issue for us,” said Harkins, who once led the Kansas Water Office.

Progress is being made, Johnson said. But the discussion, he warned, should not be limited to the poor.

“According to the 2000 census, one-fourth of the state’s households spent more than 30 percent of their incomes on house payments – or rent – and utilities,” Johnson said. “That 30 percent is a benchmark for what’s called ‘cost burdened’ or having a hard time paying their bills.

“These aren’t all poor people.”

Next year, Johnson predicted, will be worse. Much worse.

“If we have a normal winter, the number of shut-offs will triple,” he said.