It is ironic and astonishing to discover that, in the capital of the world futures and options markets, Peoples Gas Co. takes no steps to hedge natural gas prices, and relies on spot market supplies as prices soar.
This is as primitive as it is almost criminally irresponsible. Today, major utilities elsewhere hedge not only fuel supply costs but weather risks.
It’s hardly the sole fault of Peoples Gas. Apparently the Citizens Utility Board was so alarmed at the prospect that the company might make an extra buck on trading profits that it convinced the geniuses at the Illinois Commerce Commission to ensure that couldn’t happen.
Thanks to the vigilance of our watchdogs and regulators, we can look forward to paying out some hundreds of millions of dollars in higher heating costs. Presumably these are the same people whose watchfulness brought us perhaps the worst local telephone service in the U.S. and the financial disaster of Commonwealth Edison.
