US News

California Utility Tells Customers To Cut Gas Heating As Winter Weather Rolls In

Southern California Gas Co., a natural gas utility, issued a “Dial It Down” alert to customers Monday, asking them to limit natural gas use through Thursday while cold weather strikes.

SoCal Gas asks customers to voluntarily turn down their thermostats and take shorter showers at various times throughout the winter when natural gas usage spikes. The notices, if heeded, may fend off a gas shortage later and relieves stress from the system.

Since 2016, SoCal Gas has warned its nearly 22 million customers every year that the utility may not have enough natural gas in stored up to last throughout the summer and winter. The warnings began after one of the utilities storage facilities was compromised by a gas leak.

SoCal Gas’s storage facility at Aliso Canyon – a network of underground caverns that used to be depositories for oil before they ran dry – in Southern California sprung a leak in 2015 leading to the second largest methane leak in U.S. history. The leak lasted for months before workers were able to patch it.

After the leak was patched, the California state government forbid SoCal Gas from filling the storage area to capacity again, cutting down the utility’s natural gas reserves.

Outages of gas pipelines have also plagued the utility and stressed the state’s natural gas delivery system.

In May 2018, California regulators, power companies and grid operators warned that the state may run out of natural gas during the winter. SoCal Gas asked the state to let it have full use of the Aliso Canyon facility to stave off a possible shortage, according to Reuters.

The state has refused to grant to request and looked for other alternatives to expanding California’s electrical capacity, including importing liquified natural gas from Mexico.

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org

Tim Pearce

Share
Published by
Tim Pearce
Tags: PG&E Corp

Recent Posts

DEI Is Being Expelled From Education One Lawsuit At A Time

The United States of America has been prescribed aggressive treatment by the Trump administration to…

8 hours ago

Donald Trump Strikes Houthi Rebels and Warns Iran: An Analysis

Background on the Houthi Rebels and Iran's Influence The Houthi rebels, officially known as Ansar…

8 hours ago

Democrat Violence Is the Fault of Media And DNC Leadership

The Democrat Party is the new BLM. The plethora of misinformation coming from the Media…

10 hours ago

Trump’s European Reset Is Reclaiming America’s Leadership

President Donald Trump is letting the world know that the days of American foreign policy…

10 hours ago

Kyrsten Sinema Is Having The Last Laugh On The Filibuster

Former Independent Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who was previously a Democrat, is having the last…

10 hours ago

CNN Poll Finds Democratic Party’s Approval Rating At Record Low

The Democratic Party has dropped to a new record low among Americans, reaching only a…

14 hours ago