Ottawa County: Natural gas aggregate issue on ballot

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Voters in Ottawa County will be asked on the Nov. 8 ballot if the county commissioners should have the authority to aggregate natural gas consumers in townships and enter into service agreements for the purchase of natural gas.
Ohio law allows political subdivisions – counties, municipalities, and townships – to form aggregated buying groups to purchase electricity or natural gas on behalf of their residents.
The commissioners on July 26 approved a resolution to put the issue on the ballot.
An informational sheet from the county says an aggregated group can negotiate better prices from suppliers than individual households or small businesses.
An electric aggregation program in place in the county since 2010 has saved users about $7.6 million, according to county figures.
If the issue is passed, all eligible small businesses – those who use less than 5,000 cubic feet in a year – and residents in unincorporated areas of the county will be enrolled in the program. Those who don’t want to be in the program will have the choice to opt out without penalty.
The commissioners will hold two public hearings to explain the program and answer questions if voters approve the ballot issue.
Residents in the program will still receive bills from Columbia Gas of Ohio and not a separate bill from the chosen natural gas supplier.
“A natural gas aggregation program will not only provide the citizens of Ottawa County with savings on their natural gas costs, but also provide some peace of mind. Many citizens receive phone calls from suppliers or even are visited at their door by sales people looking to sign them up for different energy cost savings program,” the informational sheet says. “Many times the terms of these programs are long, technical, and confusing in nature and without careful review residents can be led into a program that starts out with a very low rate that then balloons into a much higher rate after a few months and costs the person much more than they thought it would. These people often times are also unknowingly auto-renewed at a rate much higher than what their previous program was.”