Natural gas prices expected to rise in Janurary

ATLANTA - Natural gas prices are rising, and Georgia consumers could see the impact as early as January. <br> <br> Wholesale prices are expected to stay twice as high as last winter. So far, there has been little impace on retail prices, but that could change as a new round of prices is set early next month. <br> <br> ``Prices will have to react to this increase in costs. No doubt about it,&#39;&#39; said C. Phillip Saunders, chief executive of Southern Company Gas, Georgia&#39;s third largest natural gas marketer. <br> <br> But analysts say they don&#39;t expect prices to jump as much as they did two years ago when Georgia&#39;s deregulated market suffered a crisis of high gas bills and service shutoffs. <br> <br> Cold weather and low supplies pushed wholesale prices to more than $5 per million British thermal units, or about 50 cents per therm, earlier this month for the first time this year. That was double last year&#39;s price, which was helped by milder weather. <br> <br> Consumer prices have ranged from 64 cents to 73 cents per therm this month. <br> <br> The impact of higher prices will also be blunted by a newly established subsidized heating program for the poor. More than 9,000 households have signed up for regulated gas service from Scana Energy. <br> <br> The Public Service Commission imposed a moratorium two years ago on shutoffs, which had been common when poor households had trouble with the high gas bills. But the moratorium drove up marketer bad debt when bills went unpaid, and much of the cost was spread among paying customers. <br> <br> The impact of higher prices also will be tempered by the growing popularity of fixed-price contracts that guarantee prices for a set term usually one year regardless of wholesale fluctuations. <br> <br> About 95 percent of Southern Company Gas&#39; customers are on fixed-price contracts, and about 25 percent of Scana&#39;s customers have chosen fixed-price plans. <br> <br> But analysts say most of the 1.5 million households in the deregulated market are on variable price plans, subject to monthly fluctuation.