The City of Chanute would like to address the inquiries our utility customers have in regards to rising utility bills. Chanute utility customers are experiencing higher utility bills due to consumption from the extreme heat over the last month. Other factors are the ongoing natural gas crisis and electric prices. Natural gas is trading on average at $9.00/MMBtu, which is up from an average $4.00/MMBtu a year ago. Unfortunately, when natural gas prices increase so does electric prices due to the natural gas turbine. The City of Chanute does help offset the higher electric cost by generation from the City's owned Power Plant. Those savings have been marginal due to the high natural gas prices. City staff is aware of the burden this is having on our citizens and will continue to work on finding solutions to help offset the above average market prices.