NW Natural Customers Avoid Big Rate Increase, Lose on Electrification
Posted on October 29, 2025 by Charlotte Shuff
Tags, Press Releases
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 30, 2025
NW Natural Customers Avoid Big Rate Increase, Lose on Electrification
Regulators approve a $4.28 per month gas bill increase after denying consumer advocates new policies that support bill savings from customers moving off the gas system.
Salem, OR — Starting October 31, NW Natural customers will see a small increase in their gas bills. Regulators approved two rate increases that will raise home gas bills by 5.5 percent on average, about $4.28 per month. This increase will be higher in the winter months as heaters use more gas. Consumer advocates helped reach agreements with the gas utility to lower the overall increase by about two-thirds, cutting nearly $38 million.
Last Friday, regulators at the Oregon Public Utility Commission approved NW Natural to collect more money from customers’ gas bills. This billing rate increase is primarily to replace aging equipment, fund seismic upgrades, and address inflation and rising methane costs, the primary fuel in natural gas.
Of all of the cuts, profits were the largest reduction in the rate increase. Advocates’ agreement with the utility to cut profit margins increased savings for customers by nearly $15 million a year. Consumer advocates included the Oregon Citizens’ Utility Board and Green Energy Institute, on behalf of Climate Solutions, Coalition of Communities of Color, Verde, Sierra Club, and Oregon Environmental Council.
“After years of back-to-back rate increases, NW Natural customers are seeing their first break,” said Bob Jenks, Executive Director of Oregon Citizens’ Utility Board. “Oregonians have had too many major increases in our gas and electric bills over the last five years. The outcry over unaffordable energy bills has been growing.”
Consumer advocates also asked regulators to approve new policies to address electrification, the switch from gas to electric appliances. Regulators rejected two proposals: one to remove from customers’ bills the profits NW Natural earned on gas infrastructure that is no longer in use due to household electrification, and one to allow funds from the Oregon Low Income Energy Efficiency Program to go to replace old or broken furnaces with high-efficiency heat pumps that provide heating and cooling.
“This result means NW Natural will go several more years without taking any meaningful actions to reduce its emissions in a cost-effective manner,” said Cole Souder, Staff Attorney, Green Energy Institute. ”With the federal government intent on increasing carbon emissions, we hoped Oregon would be proactive in directing NW Natural to support customers seeking to electrify, just as Commissions across the country have done. Customers deserve a utility and a Commission that keeps up with peers doing more to meet the moment.”
Oregon has seen community-led pushes to move away from natural gas (methane) increasingly over the last few years. There has been a rise in local chapters of Electrify Oregon across the state. In 2023, the City of Eugene passed an ordinance banning new gas hookups for low-rise residential buildings. Although this was reversed after a federal court ruling, there was strong public support for the ordinance.
The Commission also rejected a proposal to require NW Natural to begin studying targeted voluntary electrification, a process where customers in certain areas are given a special financial incentive to electrify their gas appliances, despite approving a similar proposal for Avista earlier this year. In other states like Washington, Colorado, and Vermont, targeted electrification has been shown to reduce emissions, lower overall energy use, and save customers money.
Earlier this year, NW Natural asked for a $59.3 million (7 percent) increase in billing rates for its household gas customers. The gas utility filed this request with regulators just two months after receiving a rate increase on November 1, 2024. With the passage of the FAIR Energy Act (HB 3179), NW Natural will not be able to come back for another rate increase request for 18 months, with an additional 10 months before any such request could show up on customer bills.
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MEDIA CONTACT:
Charlotte Shuff
Oregon Citizens’ Utility Board
503.719.8744 | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Juan M. Muñoz Jimenez
Climate Solutions
937.219.5565 | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
10/30/25 | 0 Comments | NW Natural Customers Avoid Big Rate Increase, Lose on Electrification