Utility Double Whammy as KGS Joins the 2018 Rate Hike Request Bandwagon

by Allen Williams


Kansas Gas Corporation is back for another rate increase in just two years, Docket No.:18-KGSG-560 RTS   The last one having been approved in 2016.  KGS is a subsidiary of ONE Gas.  ONE Gas Inc is another large conglomerate supplying Oklahoma, Eastern Kansas and parts of Texas where guaranteed levels of income are desired regardless of overall consumption.    

Breitbart reports that Electric, Gas, and Water Rates Falling Due to Trump Tax Cuts 

“The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act cut the corporate rate from 35% to 21%.. Utility companies are passing on the tax savings in the form of lower rates for customers,” – Americans for Tax Reform.

But this phenomenon is apparently not true in Kansas where utility rates continue to rise.  

The ONE Gas financial report at http://investor.onegas.com/news/news-releases/news-details/2018/ONE-Gas-Announces-First-quarter-2018-Financial-Results/default.aspx  shows:

Net margin increased by $0.8 million compared with first quarter 2017, which primarily reflects:

  • A $5.1 million increase from new rates primarily in Texas and Kansas;
  • A $2.5 million increase from the impact of the weather-normalization mechanisms in Kansas and Oklahoma;
  • A $2.5 million increase due primarily to higher transportation volumes;
  • A $1.2 million increase attributed to net residential customer growth in Oklahoma and Texas;
  • A $0.9 million increase due to a compressed natural gas excise tax credit that was enacted in February 2018 and retroactive to 2017; and
  • A $0.8 million increase in rider and surcharge recoveries due to a higher ad-valorem surcharge in Kansas, which is offset with higher regulatory amortization expense; offset by
  • A $12.3 million decrease related to the deferral of potential refund obligations from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

So KGS admits revenues are up from a combined increase in Texas and Kansas but it’s NOT enough! There appears to be no end to KGS rate and new cost factor requests, the latest being the Kansas  Gas System Reliability Surcharge which now is to include Cyber attacks.  Why not include impact from the stock market impact in a cost factor as well?

SOURCE:  http://investor.onegas.com/investors/financial-reporting/earnings-and-guidance/default.aspx

 “ONE Gas 2018 net income is expected to be in the range of $167 million to $178 million, or $3.15 to $3.35 per diluted share. The midpoint for ONE Gas’ 2018 net income guidance is $172 million, or $3.25 per diluted share.”

Requests for Kansas utility rate increases are a revolving door chiefly to guarantee satisfactory dividends to ONE Gas investors.  The current KGS request increase is a 10% rate hike to consumers when inflation currently stands at 2.3%.

Is there ANYTHING the rate payer is NOT being asked to fund?  Where is the promise of lower rates to get the earlier rate increase approvals?  Just lies as the market for gas has improved revenues rather than diminished them. Instead rate payers are asked to pay dividends of $3.35 a share. But why stop there? Why not $5.15 or even $10 a share? 

General Motors a for profit corporation is paying just $0.38 cents per share as of their 1st Quarter 2018 financial report:  http://quote.morningstar.com/stock-filing/Quarterly-Report/2018/3/31/t.aspx?t=:GM&ft=&d=8ba56ee4bdd422dcb28a39f579bc9cda while Kansans are forced to pay dividends in the dollar range. WHY?

Extraneous surcharges mask the true price users pay for gas services and in effect are automatic rate bumpers that increase consumer bills unfairly for such things as weather, reliability etc. It is an effective hedge against conservation.  These charges are designed to keep utility bills from advantaging consumers by being too low.  The KGS COG delivery charge is an example.   In Sept of 2018 the service charge was 0.4 MCF at a stated rate of $3.85 per 1000 ft3. 

Extraneous surcharges mask the true price users pay for gas services and in effect are automatic rate bumpers that increase consumer bills unfairly for such things as weather, reliability etc. It is an effective hedge against conservation.  These charges are designed to keep utility bills from advantaging consumers by being too low.  The KGS COG delivery charge is an example.  In Sept of 2018 the service charge was 0.4 MCF at a stated rate of $3.85 per 1000 ft3. 

This $0.4*1000 ft3 * $3.8523/1000 ft3 = $1.54 COG

So the ratio of gas consumption to the charge for providing it is $16.70/$1.54 or 10.84 nearly 11 times the cost of the gas which illustrates my point.  Now KGS wants to increase the delivery service charge from $16.70 to $22.66 which is $22.66/ $1.54 or 14.7 times the cost of the gas.

The result is that KGS customers will pay nearly 15 times as much for the gas to be delivered to their home as for the actual gas consumed not to mention all the other ‘hedge factors’.  The rest of the bill is local taxes.  When service charges exceed the cost of a product by double digits the company is gouging consumers.

BreitBart continues:  “Thus far, ATR has found 102 utility companies that have lowered rates or ceased rate hikes due to President Trump’s tax cuts.”

Why do ONE Gas/KGS customers have to fund dividends at a higher rate than General Motors, #21 on the 2017 fortune 500 list despite a record federal tax cut?

I seriously question the company’s claim that it has “experienced increases in payroll expenses and supplier costs” to justify their current rate request. These cost claims appear to be creative paper expenses towards the end of providing investor dividends.

102 other utilities have either decreased rates or ceased rate requests but not Kansas?  

Commission Consultants are not tantamount to citizen ratepayer oversight of a regulated monopoly

The KGS rate increase is nothing short of rubber stamp legalized robbery.


Election 2020: America needs a leader, not a liar like Clinton

by Rich Panessa


Will it be Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump? Several "protest candidates" have sprouted up which usually indicates they don’t have enough money, or they’re in it to try to upset the election results. As a former member of The Spectrum & Daily News
’ Writer’s Group for six years, I prognosticated about the country’s future under an unqualified Barack Obama. His dynamic speeches inspired the nation, but failed to ignite a fire under him. Predictably, his two terms as president doubled our debt and welfare enrollment, sent race relations back to pre-MLK, while his naive "lead-from-behind" foreign policy became a joke to our enemies, and a death knell to our allies. Nice job.

As if his tenure wasn’t destructive enough, Obama highly recommended Hillary Clinton as his successor. Hillary is an unscrupulous politician who has made a fortune on the backs of the taxpayers. As Bill Clinton’s "point woman" during the scandals that plagued them in Arkansas, she skillfully managed to keep him a few steps ahead of the hangman. Her public life (and Bill’s) has been one shameful scandal after another with recent breaches in national security, "pay for play" implications between foreign governments and the State Department, while lying to Congress. Her investment outcomes have been "miraculous," while record books and sometimes "Arkansas bodies" disappeared just like in an old B-movie mystery.

The difference is the Clinton who-doneit never ends ... and they’re never solved. Whitewater, File Gate, Travel Gate, Bi! ll’s impeachment and trial, a fistful of sexual assaults, Monica, Vince Foster, or why they were gifted a million-dollar New York home by none other than the current governor of Virginia. Then there’s the current FBI and IRS investigations into the Clinton Foundation. Move over Bonnie and Clyde. Donald Trump is not a politician but a businessman who turned his father’s $10 million dollar real estate company into a $10 billion empire. In his ascent, he honed his business skills alongside other powerful moguls like Helmsley, Blau, and Bloomberg, et al., not to mention savvy foreign investors from China, Russia and Japan. He has keen management skills and is a top-notch negotiator.

Like him or not, Trump will re-establish America’s financial and production superiority to regain worldwide trade advantages. He’s a staunch supporter of law ! enforcement and is committed to modernize the military. He’ll allow companies with trillions offshore to repatriate that money with minimal penalties as long as the money remains in the U.S., to help pay for infrastructure investments and tax cuts across the board. His leadership and motivational skills will inspire Congress to reach impossible goals with precision, on time, and unlike before, under budget. For these reasons, regardless of his political missteps so far, I believe he’ll lead our nation from political correctness into an era of "Americanism." Most media outlets in their liberal bias criticize Trump for his gaffes and inexperience at campaigning, but admit he’s not a liar or a thief. He’s someone who will get much done, won’t speak in platitudes, and vehemently protect and defend the Constitution of United States, while never placing himself above the welfare and safety of this nation.

Could you make the same claim about Hillary Cl! inton? Rich Panessa is a resident of St. George.


Fox Bombshell: Peter Strzok’s FBI Mistress Lisa Page Worked for Clinton, According to Text Messages

by Cillian Zeal


According to Fox News, a newly uncovered text message chain seems to confirm that FBI lawyer Lisa Page — one of the two lovebirds whose texts have cast doubt on the objectivity of the Department of Justice’s investigations surrounding the 2016 election — claims that she interned for one of the Clintons.

“Get inspired and depressing reading that article about how Obama approached the mail room,” Page said in a text to Strzok on Jan. 19, 2017 — the last full day of the Obama administration.

Needless to say, it was very different when I interned there under Clinton.”

The article she was discussing was a New York Times piece that described the kind of mail the outgoing president would receive.

“At the beginning of his first term, President (Barack) Obama said he wanted to read his mail. He said he would like to see 10 letters a day. After that, the 10LADs, as they came to be called, were put in a purple folder and added to the back of the briefing book he took with him to the residence on the second floor of the White House each night,” the article, titled “To Obama With Love, and Hate, and Desperation,” read.

“Choosing which letters made it to the president started here in the Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House, in the ‘hard-mail room,’ which had the tired, unkempt look of a college study hall during finals — paper everywhere, files stacked along walls, bundles under tables, boxes propping up computer monitors dotted with Post-its, cables hanging.”

Page is 39 and graduated American University in 2000. It’s unclear which Clinton she would have interned under; President Bill Clinton was leaving office as she was graduating and Hillary Clinton was taking her role as the junior senator from New York in 2001.

Page declined to comment on the latest text.

While the text messages that received the most attention this week involved ones which plotted leaks to the press, the Clinton message — assuming it’s accurate and Page is telling the truth — would also present a conflict of interest.

Both Page and Strzok were involved in the FBI’s Midyear Exam investigation — the codename for the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s handling of classified email on a private server during her time at the State Department.

That wasn’t all, though.

“Strzok and Page both served on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team investigating Russian meddling and potential collusion with Trump campaign associates in the 2016 presidential election. Page served on the special counsel’s team on a short detail, returning back to the FBI’s Office of General Counsel in July 2017,” Fox News reported.

“Page, during her time at the FBI, was a deputy of former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, who was long criticized by Trump and congressional Republicans for his ties to the Democratic Party. McCabe’s wife received donations during a failed 2015 Virginia Senate run from a group tied to a Clinton ally, former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe — all while the Clinton email probe was underway.”

So, is this a conflict of interest? More evidence of just how much of a morass the swamp really is? Overthinking a text message? Or none of the above?

Well, the simple answer is that we don’t know, inasmuch as Strzok, Page and everyone else around them have tried to denude these text messages of all context. Strzok’s appearance before Congress certainly didn’t elucidate much, although it may have inspired plenty of GIFs.

However, if this is true, Page was compromised from the beginning — and that’s a serious problem for anyone trying to push this as mere Jim Garrison-esque conspiracy theorizing. Time for answers, folks.


NY Post Bombshell Report Means Rosenstein Massively Rigged Cohen Trial

by Lisa Payne-Naeger


Sometimes I wonder if Donald Trump knew what he was really getting himself into when he decided to run for president and drain the swamp.

Everywhere he’s turned he has met roadblocks, opposition and betrayal as he tries to infuse policy he thinks will make America great again.

And ever since he was accused of colluding with Russia to sway the 2016 election, the constant turn of events have played out like a bad daytime drama. The latest twist in the plot centers around Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, and if reports are true, he could be in a heap of trouble.

On Saturday, Michael Goodwin wrote in the New York Post that Rosenstein ordered United States Attorney Geoffrey Berman to recuse himself from the investigation into the Michael Cohen case, which in turn would leave his office staffed with Obama administration holdovers from Preet Bharara’s tenure as Berman’s predecessor.

Berman was appointed to the Southern District of New York position by President Trump after he fired Preet Bharara, an Obama appointee.

Since his firing, Preet has made his feelings known that he is not a Trump supporter. The bias is clear. Looks like the president made a good call on that one. Chris Strohm of Bloomberg reports the significance of this move as they allege the strings of this case are being pulled not by the Justice Department, but by prosecutors in the Southern District of New York.

“Cohen’s guilty plea was secured as part of an investigation led by the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, not by Special Counsel Mueller or Justice Department headquarters, another frequent target of the president’s derision. Instead, the deal was made by Robert Khuzami, deputy U.S. attorney for the New York office,” he wrote.

“But neither Rosenstein nor Mueller is calling the shots for the investigation in New York, according to two people familiar with the matter. The U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, commonly known as SDNY, has the independence to take investigative steps and charge people without approval from Rosenstein, one of the people said.

So while Rosenstein was consulted about Cohen’s plea, which implicated Trump in campaign finance crimes, he didn’t sign off on it or approve it, the person said. It’s not clear whether Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s recusal from Mueller’s probe extends to the investigation in Manhattan.”

To sum up the significance of this move, let’s just say that the SDNY is now driving the bus on any developing investigation into the Cohen case. While the Justice Department still holds oversight as all U.S attorneys still answer to Rosenstein, previously the SDNY has enjoyed independence of operation outside the U.S. Attorney’s office.

And the lines of communication are open and free between SDNY prosecutors and investigators in Robert Mueller’s office.

Bloomberg also states: “Rosenstein made the decision to give the Cohen case to SDNY following a referral from Mueller. That also ensured the investigation could continue even if Trump somehow managed to fire the special counsel, a politically dangerous move that many Republicans have warned the president to avoid.”

So, if it is true that Rosenstein intentionally moved the trial to SDNY, it might be more than a suspicious coincidence that a Trump-appointed attorney was ordered to recuse himself from the case leaving it to less-unbiased attorneys general.

What a mess and an endless saga of betrayal. Trump appointed Jeff Sessions as Attorney General in February of 2017, only to have Sessions recuse himself from the Russia investigations in the beginning of March of that year.

This left Rod Rosenstein in charge of overseeing the Russia investigations and he appointed Robert Mueller as Special Prosecutor in May of 2017. Since that time there has been no evidence of Russian collusion, but the Mueller team has bull dogged members of Trumps inner circle and charged them with various unrelated crimes.

You can’t make this stuff up, folks. These latest allegations are almost a kin to jumping the shark for television sweeps week.

I guess we will see who wins in the ratings race in November.