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>> As temperatures cool
down with the advent of

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winter not far behind, it
will soon be time to turn

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on the furnace. And like
gasoline and diesel prices,

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the cost to heat your home
is expected to go up by an

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average of about 8.7% for
the season, according to

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national forecasts. Tom
Content, of the Citizens

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Utility Board has been
tracking the trend. And

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thanks very much for being
here.

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>> So is this just like
added to the list of the

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things that are costing
more right now?

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>> There is so much. I mean,
we we're seeing it

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everywhere. And
unfortunately, we we had a

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high heating cost winter
last year, in part because

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of how expensive natural
gas was, but mainly because

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of how frigid the winter
was. We had those stretched

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double stretches of subzero
temperatures that hit us

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hard. And so people were
firing up their furnaces.

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And then the next month,
they were looking at their

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utility bills going, what
the heck happened? Because

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my prices are off the
charts. And we're concerned

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that that could that could
be a problem again this

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winter.
>> Speaking of temperatures,

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though, this El Nino
weather pattern could help.

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Could be warmer. It's
always kind of not known.

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>> No, it's not known. And
we're waiting for the

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official for an official
forecast from the Energy

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Information Administration
won't come out til that

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next month. And that one
will actually incorporate

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forecasts as the forecast
of temperatures as well.

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And the utilities
themselves often put out

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forecasts. And we're still
waiting on that. But the

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information we have so far
shows, especially for

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people in rural Wisconsin,
that use propane or in

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areas of the state that
still use heating oil, that

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this could be a tough
winter.

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>> Because the heating oil
price projections put it up

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more than 30%. But is that
a small number of people

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who use oil in Wisconsin?
>> Yes it is. It's a very

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small amount. I just looked
and it's about 35,000

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households across the state
that use it. And this would

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be a good year to get rid
of heating oil because the

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prices are off the charts,
because heating oil is

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really directly affected by
crude oil prices. Propane

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is also affected, but not
quite as much by crude oil

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prices. But it is affected.
>> So propane and electric,

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I understand, represent
about 500,000 households

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together. And those price
projections are at like

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about 9%. Where do people
mostly use propane and

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electric? Because the what,
like 65% of people use

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natural gas.
>> Correct. Two thirds of

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Wisconsin's use natural gas
and propane is is the farm.

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The rural areas of
Wisconsin are often on

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propane. Because of the
natural gas system hasn't

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connected them. And so so a
lot of rural Wisconsinites

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should really reach out to
their propane dealers and

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maybe get multiple quotes
this this year just to see

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what what deal you can get
and maybe try to try to

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lock that in because the
prices are are concerning.

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But, but there are
opportunities to convert to

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natural gas in some areas
now. And so that that's,

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that's an option to think
about.

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>> So you also say that
there are other ways that

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people can potentially save,
including through the the

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program focus on energy.
And that is like legitimate.

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>> Yeah, that's a statewide
program that everybody pays

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into who's a utility
customer. Wisconsin pays

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into focus every year. And
so what we want to see is

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more people take advantage
of focus and get the

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benefits. So this is the
program that used to

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provide LED light bulbs to
everybody. And now LED

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prices have come down so
much that focuses focus,

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provides incentives in
other ways. They actually

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have incentives. If you
want to add solar to your

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house, they have incentives
on a highly efficient

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furnace. They have
incentives on insulation

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and air sealing. And the
biggest thing that and

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newest thing that they have
is they have funding

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through the Inflation
Reduction Act that Congress

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passed a few years ago. For
a whole variety of programs

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that help all customers.
But actually there's extra

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incentives for low income
customers that are built

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into that. And so people
should really take a look

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at the Focus on energy
website w its focus on

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energy.com. And there's a
really handy get started

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button on there that you
can then enter in your

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information and even your
income, and it'll let you

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know the kinds of things
that you're eligible for.

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So that's a really
important thing to know.

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>> The other thing that you
are watching is a price

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hike on the horizon from
some utility companies

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coming up the start of the
new year. What's that?

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>> So both we Energies and
Wisconsin Public Service.

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So the eastern a lot of the
eastern half of Wisconsin

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00:05:05,939 --> 00:05:08,609
are in for rate hikes right
in front of the Public

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00:05:08,675 --> 00:05:10,811
Service Commission right
now. Our group, the

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consumer advocate, is
involved in those cases to

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try to bring down the size
of those increases. And and

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so we've been vocal on that,
trying to target high

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profits and other issues.
There's a public hearing

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coming up this Tuesday on
Zoom and in green Bay that

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people could participate in
and have a say before those

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cases are decided.
>> All right. Tom Content,

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thanks very much. Thanks
for your work.

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>> All right. Thank you so
much.

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>> From heat to water.
>> From heat to water.