Starting this month, Greeley Gas customers in Cortez can expect to see a 21.9 percent increase in the price they pay for natural gas on residential properties — and a 24.1 percent increase on commercial property.

And that price hike may not be the last this year.

Greeley Gas is one of nine natural-gas companies around Colorado that have been granted permission by the Denver-based Public Utilities Commission to increase their natural-gas commodity rates.

Greeley distributes natural gas to nearly 100,000 customers throughout Colorado, as well as Kansas and small portions of Missouri.

"The commission considered the increase on June 28 and allowed all the companies to have it go into effective operation of law on July 1," said PUC spokesperson Barbara Fernandez on Wednesday.

However, Fernandez said, "We are warning people that the companies can also file in September for an Oct. 1 increase — so we don’t want the public to think that this is the increase for winter.

"We are very worried that there may very well be another increase in September if we don’t see the gas market going down," said Fernandez.

In a news release, Greeley Gas Company spokesperson Karen Wilkes said, "Greeley Gas Company does not make a profit on the cost of gas. . . . The actual cost of gas is passed directly through to the customer, penny for penny, and is subject to change as gas costs go up or down according to market demands."

Cortez City Manager Hal Shepherd said that typical residential gas consumers will see an increase of approximately $1.50 per month during the summer and $11.50 per month during the winter as a result of the July 1 commodity hike.

Shepherd said he will be meeting with administrators from Greeley Gas July 13 to discuss the recent price hike.

"A 24-percent increase is unreasonable. I don’t understand it." said Shepherd. "Nationally we have had a movement for deregulation (of gas companies) in order to create competition so that prices would go down —but that has obviously been a failure," he said.

Fernandez attributed the price increase to the fact that, since deregulation, gas is now purchased on an open, unregulated market which is subject to much speculation. "It’s just like anything else on the stock market," said Fernandez.

Fernandez also said that more electric companies across the nation are using gas turbines to generate their electricity.

"Since, in the past, these electricity plants weren’t using gas and (analysts) are now saying that’s what is leading to this increase in the price of gas," Fernandez said.

"During the summer months people are using more electricity to run their air conditioners, etc. This increase in demand is creating an increase in price," she said.

However, Shepherd said he isn’t buying that explanation. "Some electric companies have switched over and become gas-generated but not enough of them to justify a 24-percent increase," Shepherd said.

Shepherd said that while the city will have to endure the 24.1 percent increase on the gas it uses in public buildings, that burden will not be passed along to the taxpayers.

"The public will have their own (gas price) increase to worry about this winter," Shepherd said.