Revisiting this topic in light of the CA Climate Credit as well as looking at another 3rd party supplier. If you have an personal experience dealing with 3rd party natural gas suppliers and wish to share that information, post up in the comment section. Or if you have made and posted a video, post a link in the comments or if you just have a video, send that on and I’ll post it here to help folks avoid getting snared into one of these 3rd party contracts. The purpose of this video is to arm you with the knowledge of how to analyze the purported “cost saving” claims by the salesman with respect to your own natural gas consumption.
As I found out, subscribers of a 3rd party gas plan forego the CA Climate Credits. So those payments need to be included as a cost for one of these 3rd party plans.
Average gas cost for PG&E in 2018 was US$0.313. This rate is paid by all residential customers, regardless of usage. The delivery or transportation charge does increase if you exceed the baseline consumption of 18 therms/summer or 60 therms/winter.
I just don’t see that any of these supplier plans make sense in today’s market. Unless you have very high gas consumption, especially during winter months when the rates are higher, maybe one of these flat rate plans might make sense. But do the math with at least one year of your own gas bills to make sure. Don’t sign anything from a salesman coming to your door without running the numbers.
Bottom line is almost certainly you won’t be saving any money with any of these plans, you won’t be getting “greener” gas with any of these plans.
Links:
Center for Climate and Energy Solutions Cap and Trade summary:
LA Times Cap and Trade article:
Center Point Energy web site:
Vista Energy web site:
Not sure if there’s a limit on their $0.99/day plan.
PG&E Core Transport Agent list:
PG&E Natural Gas Rate information:
SFE Energy web site:
Pricing I found on various social media sites:
$31.99/mo., $4.98/mo. customer/service charge, up to $225 early cancellation fee.
American Forests web site:
Yelp reviews:
Better Business Bureau:
One of many Reddit review threads:
One of many NextDoor review threads:
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And as always, thanks for watching
Intro:
Louisiana Fairytale by Austin Rogers