Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti speaks during a public hearing hosted by The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission to discuss UGI gas rate hikes at City Hall in Wilkes-Barre on Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (JASON ARDAN / STAFF PHOTOGTAPHER)
The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission held a public hearing to discuss UGI gas rate hikes at City Hall in Wilkes-Barre on Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (JASON ARDAN / STAFF PHOTOGTAPHER)
Attendees swear in to speak under oath during a public hearing hosted by The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission to discuss UGI gas rate hikes at City Hall in Wilkes-Barre on Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (JASON ARDAN / STAFF PHOTOGTAPHER)
Wilkes-Barre City Council Chair Tony Brooks speaks during a public hearing hosted by The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission to discuss UGI gas rate hikes at City Hall in Wilkes-Barre on Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (JASON ARDAN / STAFF PHOTOGTAPHER)
Brian Langan, representing Rob Bresnahan, speaks during a public hearing hosted by The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission to discuss UGI gas rate hikes at City Hall in Wilkes-Barre on Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (JASON ARDAN / STAFF PHOTOGTAPHER)
David McGregor, the attorney representing UGI, speaks during a public hearing hosted by The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission to discuss UGI gas rate hikes at City Hall in Wilkes-Barre on Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (JASON ARDAN / STAFF PHOTOGTAPHER)
Pa. State Rep. Jim Haddock speaks during a public hearing hosted by The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission to discuss UGI gas rate hikes at City Hall in Wilkes-Barre on Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (JASON ARDAN / STAFF PHOTOGTAPHER)
WILKES-BARRE — Ratepayers and public officials implored the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission on Wednesday to reject a request from UGI Utilities to increase natural gas base rates.
The PUC held a public hearing on the issue at Wilkes-Barre City Hall at the request and invitation of Mayor George C. Brown.
In a packed council chambers, 15 people, including elected officials, business owners and residents from Luzerne and Lackawanna counties, testified before PUC Administrative Law Judge Charece Z. Collins, who presided over the hearing, and Deputy Chief Administrative Law Judge Mark A. Hoyer, an attorney representing UGI, and representatives from organizations and agencies representing public interests.
Some chided the utility company for putting shareholders over ratepayers and paying exorbitant dividends.
UGI announced in January that it filed a request with the PUC to increase its base rates for residential, commercial and industrial gas customers. The increases, which range from 7.5% for industrial customers to 10.8% for residential customers, would raise $110.4 Million annually for UGI.
While UGI had requested the new rates take effect March 28, the PUC voted 5-0 in February to suspend and investigate the proposed hikes.
Brown testified first, noting that the median household income in the city of about 50,000 residents is $47,970, with many elderly residents living on fixed incomes and many low-income households.
“I fear this rate increase will push our financially insecure residents to face the choice between paying their gas bill or paying or paying their food or medicine bills,” Brown said, adding that a rate hike for businesses would have “a domino effect on the local economy as our business community continues to recover from the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti said a woman recently approached her in a restaurant concerned about being able to afford household expenses on top of the proposed rate hike.
“Rent is high, food prices are high, prices of cellphones and vehicles are going up. There’s a tremendous amount of uncertainty,” Cognetti said. “We are not wealthy communities. Our poverty rate is about 22% and I fear with continued economic downturns, we could potentially see that rise. So, it really does matter that these rate increases would have an impact on households.”
Brian Langan, a district director for U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan, R-8, Dallas Twp., read a letter the congressman submitted to the PUC last month, stating his “absolute opposition” to the proposed rate hike on residential customers in his district of about 764,000 residents.
Bresnahan wrote that the hike would “severely hurt a population still feeling the impacts of record inflation,” calling it “reckless in nature,” noting that UGI just increased gas rates by 8.7% in December, and asking the PUC to “protect public interests and ensure our communities and neighbors can continue to grow without undue rate hikes on this essential service.”
State Rep. Jim Haddock, D-118, Pittston Twp., said awarding UGI “a third rate hike in four years is unacceptable,” noting rate increases in 2022 amounting to $38 million, and in 2023 totaling $11.45 million, “and that was 40% of what they asked for.”
Haddock noted that UGI paid stockholders a dividend of 4.99% on April 1 and found it ironic that occurred when requesting these rate hikes. He said the company has grown its stockholder dividends 37 years in row “and pays out 59.6% of its earnings of 25% of this cash flow as dividends.”
Wilkes-Barre Council Chairman Tony Brooks said one of his constituents, a grandmother, received a cost of living adjustment increase of 2.5% in her Social Security, which amounts to $27.50 per month. But, her monthly Medicare contribution increased $10.30 per month, and the rate increase for UGI would more than wipe out the COLA increase.
Gail Malloy, a registered nurse with the Wilkes-Barre Health Department, testified that she goes into the homes of elderly residents who are struggling financially and “really suffering. People are losing their homes or they can’t afford to rent them and are becoming unhoused.”
Malloy asked the PUC to “seriously reconsider” the rate hike request.
Scranton business owner Gerald Smurl said residents “are already facing a large tax increase this year in Lackawanna County this year” as well as a increases of 10.7% in water service rates and 6.4% in wastewater service rates.
“I realize UGI must pay competitive salaries and continue to upgrade their infrastructure, but at what cost to our residents?” Smurl said, reading from UGI’s 2025 first-quarter financial report, noting a 14% increase in adjusted diluted earnings per share driven by strong gas demand and higher gas rates.
“Now they’re asking for another increase of over $110 million a year every year. How do they explain this to over 22% of Scranton residents living along the federal poverty line?” Smurl said.
Scranton funeral director Brendan Regan called the rate increases “laughable” and the reasons for the hikes are “very different from what it’s telling its shareholders. in publicly available documents,” noting that the company paid $55 million in compensation over the last three years to seven individuals and that the company made “$375 million in profits last year alone.”
The Wilkes-Bare hearing is one of five in-person and telephonic hearings the PUC scheduled in April.
In-person hearings were held Monday in Williamsport and Tuesday in Lancaster. Two telephonic public input hearings will be held on Thursday. The deadline to register to testify at the telephonic hearings was Wednesday.
Customers who do not wish to testify but want to listen to the public input hearing may call in dialing the toll-free number: 866-566-0651; entering the PIN 5995647 when instructed to do so; speak your name when prompted and press #; and you will be connected.
For more information, visit puc.pa.gov.