20180409Comment.pdf

Diane Holt
From:[e-mail]
Sent:Sunday,April 8,2018 8:04 PM
To:BeverlyBarker;Diane Holt;Matthew Evans
Subject:Case Comment Form:Rae Brooks
Name:Rae Brooks
Case Number:INT-G-17-07
Email:[e-mail]
Telephone:
Address:
Boise ID,83702
Name of Utility Company:Intermountain Gas
Comment:Intermountain Gas is required to give customers notice of rate hikes.It is doing a perfunctory and
purposefully unintelligiblejob of it and I hope the commissioners of the Idaho Public Utilities Commission will stop
letting it get away with this.
Let me give you an example.For two consecutive months,Intermountain Gas included a small slip of paper with its
resident gas bills,with this headline:
Intermountain Gas Company files for infrastructure integrity management mechanism
I can assure you that Intermountain Gas lost its audience right there.What the heck is an "infrastructure integrity
management mechanism"and why should I care about it?
The slip of paper goes on:"Intermountain Gas Company filed a request with the Idaho Public Utilities Commission to
implement a mechanism whereby the company can recover certain costs pertaining to infrastructure integrity
management."
So,if anyone made it past "infrastructure integrity management mechanism,"thinking reading further might shed some
light,they then run into "infrastructure integrity management."
There's more,but I won't bore you;l'd be happy to send you a scan.You have to read two paragraphs of gobbledygook
on one side and turn the paper over and read a further two paragraphs before Intermountain Gas reveals anything
about the real reason for the customer notice:rate hikes,I assume.I have to assume because lGC doesn't even clearly
warn customers that this "infrastructure integrity management mechanism"will RAISE their rates.No,all it's willing to
admit is "any approved adjustment to rates would be effective Oct.1of each year."I know from experience with
another IGC filing that if a customer phones IGC after a rate hike to ask why their bill has increased and why they
weren't given any warning,IGC's answer will be:"We sent around a customer notice,"even if that was 10 months ago
and the notice was complete mumbo jumbo to begin with.
So here we go again:IGC has written the required customer notice for case #lNT-G-17-07 in such an indecipherable
manner that hardly anyone will read past the headline.It has hidden any mention of the purpose of the customer notice
--rate hikes,I presume --until the end.Even then,it will only admit to an "adjustment,"not an increase.This is
dishonest.I teach a class in clear writing."No one who has anything original or important to say will willingly run the risk
of being misunderstood;people who write obscurely are either unskilled in writing or up to mischief."A Nobel Prize
winner in medicine,Sir Peter Medewar,said that.IGC can afford to hire someone who can write,if it chooses to.Since it
allows this gibberish to go out under its name,I have to assume IGC is up to mischief.It doesn't WANT its customers to
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know that their rates are going up,so it slithers around with obscure language to ensure most people won't even read
past the headline and those who do won't understand it anyway.
WE DESERVE BETTER.We deserve to know in clear simple languagewhat IGC is up to and how it will affect our rates.
And then when a submission is approved,we deserve clear notice of what exactly was approved and when the rate hike
will go into effect.
Unique Identifier:75.167.174.248
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