Iowa Utilities Board to hold hearings on MidAmerican rate request

The Iowa Utilities Board has set five public hearings on a request by major utility company to raise the rates they charge for natural gas. Board spokesman Rob Hillesland says on April 15th Interstate Power and Light asked to increase their delivery charge for natural gas by about six-point-four percent. He says the increase, if approved, would generate just over 19-million dollars in additional revenue for the company. Hillesland says the increase would cover only the cost of delivering the gas. He says it would cover things like the infrastructure and customer service to maintain the infrastructure. Interstate Power is a subsidiary of Alliant Energy, which has over 200-thousand natural gas customers in the state. Hillesland says the increase covers all customers. He says they did send out a rate notification to all customers and according to that notification, the average residential customer would see an increase of a little less than four dollars per month if the rate was approved. Hillesland says the Iowa Utilities Board has 10 months to act on the request. He says the public hearings are part of the process in deciding the increase. He says the hearings are scheduled for May 31st in Ames, June 1st in Mason City, June 14th in Mt. Pleasant, June 15th in Clinton and June 16th in Knoxville. Hillesland says the I-U-B also encourages people to provide written comments to the board at. I-U-B Executive Secretary, 350 Maple Street, Des Moines, Iowa 50319-0069. You can find out more about the proposed rate increase at: www.state.ia.us/iub.