CHICAGO, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley is hailing a settlement with Peoples Energy Corp. that will refund about $100 per customer for natural gas overcharges.
The overcharges are not for this winter, when heating costs jumped because of interruptions in gas supplies from Hurricane Katrina. The $196 million settlement is to resolve Enron-era overcharges from 2000-04, when natural gas bills nearly doubled.
Each Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas residential or business customer will get a $50 credit this March and $50 in March, 2007 after the settlement is approved by state utility regulators.
"Each customer will receive about $100," Daley told a news conference Tuesday. About $96 million of the settlement will go pay the bills of low-income people who are behind in payments or have had service cut off for non-payment.
Peoples Energy said there were no findings of wrongdoing against the company.
