"Scientists warned the delegates that rising oil prices threaten to speed the increase of greenhouse gas emissions by spurring a shift to cheaper and dirtier fuels like coal"

June 7, 2008 AP News: U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman says fuel price subsidies are not the remedy for rising oil prices.

Bodman told reporters in Aomori Japan Saturday that although global demand for oil is increasing, oil production has been capped at 85 million barrels a day for the last three years. He called for an increase in energy investment.

BUTLER COUNTY — Duke Energy Ohio customers will be forced to pay more for natural gas distribution rates over the next year after the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio adopted a stipulation allowing the company to increase its prices.

The PUCO approved a "levelized" residential distribution rate, which will charge customers a higher fixed rate regardless of how much natural gas they use, according to the rate structure.

Residents will see their fixed customer charge increase from $6 to $15 this summer, $20.25 in October and $25.33 within a year, according to Duke's rate proposal.

The increase will have residents paying the highest natural gas customer charge in Ohio, according to officials from the Ohio Consumers' Counsel, the residential utility consumer advocate.

The PUCO decision to approve the increase went against recommendations from the OCC, which argued that by piling charges like meter reading, billing and equipment maintenance into a fixed charge, residents would be forced to pay higher rates year-round that could not be offset by energy efficiency. Previously, these charges were based on usage.

"By increasing the flat charge by more than 300 percent, the PUCO has ripped this tool out of customers' hands when it comes to distribution rates. It is wrong for all residential customers to pay Duke such a large fixed cost customer charge without consideration for how much natural gas they use," said Janine Migden-Ostrander, counsel for the OCC.