Columbia Gas announced today that it is raising rates for the three-month quarter starting Jan. 1, joining the area's other main providers, Dominion Peoples and Equitable Gas, in charging more for the coming winter.

Columbia Gas customers will have a gas cost recovery rate of $7.53 per thousand cubic feet (mcf), up from the $6.96 charged in the last three-month quarter.

The company's average customer, calculated as using 88 mcf, will have a monthly bill of about $89. That's up about $4 from last quarter.

Mirroring its competitors, Columbia's rates for the first quarter of the new year are substantially less compared to the Jan. 1 period in 2009.

That quarter saw a gas cost recovery rate of $11.57.

Columbia Gas joins a trifecta of local natural gas companies that are raising rates for the next quarter.

Dominion customers will face a gas cost recovery rate of $6.36 per thousand cubic feet (mcf), up from the $5.89 charged in the last quarter.

Spokesperson Elmore Lockley said the company's average customer, measured as using 94.8 mcf, will have a monthly bill of about $80.

That same customer had an average bill of $76 last quarter. However, compared to the January quarter of last year, the average monthly bill has fallen approximately $35 and the gas cost recovery rate has fallen about $4.

Equitable Gas customers will face a gas cost recovery rate of $8.97 per thousand cubic feet (mcf), up from the $8.48 charged in the last quarter.

The company's average customer, measured as using 90 mcf, will have a monthly bill of about $115, up from the $111 of last quarter.

The quarter starting Jan. 1 of last year saw a gas cost recovery rate of $13.07 and an average monthly bill of $135.93.

State laws require companies to adjust rates because they're forbidden to make or lose money from natural gas sales.

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