Gas Lines & Bottom Lines: Delta Utilities Takes Over | Retrospect Ep.229

In this week’s episode we discussed the impact of Delta Utilities’ takeover of Louisiana’s natural gas system. We break down how the transition has unfolded, what it has meant for local communities, and the real-world effects on customers, from service changes and billing concerns to reliability and public response.

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Keywords
gas bills, Delta Utilities, natural gas prices, Louisiana, energy affordability, winter surge, customer service, Public Service Commission, LNG export, billing structures, energy transition, utility costs, regulatory approval, Amazon data centers, renewable energy.
Jason  
Today, we're talking about something that's hitting Louisiana families right where it hurts, the gas bill and for a lot of people served by delta utilities, that number on the screen isn't just higher, it feels unrecognizable. Over the past several months, customers across Baton Rouge, New Orleans and surrounding parishes have reported dramatic spikes, some saying their bills jumped hundreds of percent since delta utilities took over the natural gas system last summer after purchasing it from Entergy. So what's really going on is this a rate hike, a cold winter, a corporate transition, or something deeper about how energy works in America right now. Here's what we know. Officials and company representatives point to a perfect storm, a winter that was roughly 41% colder than the year before, a surge in natural gas usage as households turned on heaters and fuel costs that fluctuate month to month and get passed directly to customers. But that explanation hasn't quieted the frustration residents have packed town halls and city council meetings questioning new billing structures, added service charges and whether the change in ownership altered how costs show up in their statements. For many households, the shock isn't just the price, it's the lack of clarity. And this is where the story gets bigger than Louisiana. Natural gas used to be the quiet utility, the predictable line item no one talked about now it's tied to global markets, extreme weather swings, infrastructure cost and a shifting energy landscape where every degree drop outside can ripple straight into your bank account. So tonight, we're breaking down what's verified, what's being debated, and what this moment says about the future of energy affordability, not just here, but across the country. Because when your heating bill becomes a headline, it's no longer just a bill, it's a warning light you welcome

Ian  
to the retrospect podcast, a show where people come together from different walks of life and discuss a topic from Their generation's perspective. My name is Ian, and as always, I'm joined by Stoney, hello and Jason, hello everyone.

Stoney   
Well, we could close the show after that. There's

Ian  
a lot more to be said that's crazy.

Jason  
Wow, yeah, that's kind of a crazy thing going on right now with all that, I'm thank goodness I don't have gas

Stoney   
well, okay, wait, hold on, that's not true. Where do we live? Louisiana, Louisiana, red beans and rice and white beans and, oh yes, it's the last place in the United States of America. We should have a gas problem. All right, I'm sorry, we just

Jason  
got to find a way of piping. It's

Stoney   
crazy. Well, guys, y'all enjoying this cooler weather? Yes, somebody's fixing to go away to some warm weather.

Jason  
Yes, I am fixing to honeymoon is finally arrived. So we are this Thursday. Actually, we will be heading down south. I mean, like, really south, yeah, yeah. So yes, we can't, we can't wait. So exciting. And it's hard to believe that the wedding is past. Thank you all for coming. Yeah, we got, oh, we have. Everybody we've talked to seems just have enjoyed themselves, and everything went without a hitch. Tracy's very happy about it because, yeah,

Ian  
she was as stressed as I thought.

Stoney   
It was perfect, if I may, I would like to interject Yes, because there was almost an incident. Uh oh, yes. Couple weeks ago at your wedding, I was reminded of something I did not expect to learn. There was a moment during the ceremony, one of the beautiful sacred stretches where everyone is standing, sitting, standing, sitting, kneeling, standing, sitting. It reminded me of why I have a hard time in a Catholic Church. Nothing against the Catholics, but especially since my accident, I have a real hard time with the standing and the sitting. I really couldn't keep up, physically and mentally. It started to adjust my frame, and my body just couldn't cooperate. And right in the middle of one of the prayers, I had my eyes closed, my head leaning on my cane, but I really felt myself start to lose balance badly. And I mean, I'm coming down, and I would have taken the chairs out. I'd have taken the little lady. Sitting in front of me, and no one really noticed, except for one person. And before I could steady myself, Miranda quietly reached out and grabbed my arm. There were no words, there was no attention. Didn't make a scene, just a hidden strength and presence of Miranda in my life. She didn't fix the moment. She didn't make it about her. She simply held me up. And then that's when it hit me, that's the picture of marriage, not the highlight reel, not the first dance, not the big celebration, but the quiet grip when one of you starts to sway. So Jason, as you begin this life with Tracy, it's my prayer for both of you that when one of you is weak, the other is steady. When one of you is tired, the other is watchful. When one of you feels off balance, and I know something about that, spiritually, emotionally and physically, the other is close enough to notice and strong enough to hold on, because real love isn't allowed. It's faithful, it's attentive and it's willing to carry the weight without applause. May your marriage be built on that kind of strength, the kind that steadies without shame and support without spectacle. That's the kind that lasts, and that's what I hope for you. And Tracy,

Jason  
 awe, that was Amen, yeah, amen to that. Well, our, our, our goal is to, you know, we've talked about this and being both religious, spiritual, you know, believers in you know, we're both practicing Catholics our number one goal. And we've said it all along, and this is my view of marriage. The number one goal of your spouse is to help you get to heaven. That's it, yeah? Because ultimately, as a Christian, we believe in eternal life. This life is transit. It will pass, and then we have our eternal reward in the next life. So both of us, our promise to each other was to help each other get to heaven, yeah, and then in the you know, in doing that, we'll help each other in the temporal ways here on this life as best we can. So that is my, you know, my thinking of what marriage is. You know, because, you know, I said I'm at my age now I'm I'll be 57 fixing to be 57 years old. Yeah, I am. I'm getting married late in life.

Stoney   
So according to God's getting married?

Jason  
Well, that's true. I mean, I of course, and that's the way I look at it. But I'm just saying to just chronologically speaking, most people are probably getting married a lot younger than me, right, right? Different priorities, right? And, and believe me, I think back on my younger days, and I dated girls during those years, and I could have easily just, you know,

Stoney   
does Tracy know you dated somebody before?

Jason  
Yes, quite a bit. I've shared her with her all my going back for many years of of my life, and just, you know, I mean, there was other ones that were in my life that, you know, I thought, Oh, this is the one, you know. And then, of course, it all falls apart, right? So, but, but I could have easily built back in when I was in my my 20s, I remember dating a girl, and, you know, everybody I knew was getting married at the time. It's like, you know, just go ahead and do the deal now and start a family, or whatever the case may be. God, slapped you so hard. The hair off, you know. But you know, I have to say, you know, in my, in my at that point in my life, I had no desire to be married, right? Right at all. I really did.

Ian  
Again, I'm in the same boat. I have friends of mine that are a couple years younger than me, and they're having kids. They've had multiple

Jason  
natural thing to do, right, right, right?

Stoney   
The Cherokee had a really interesting proverb on this, and I know we have a show to do, but let me share this with you. A woman's highest calling is to lead a man to his soul as to unite him with source, God or great spirit. A man's highest calling is to protect woman so she is free to walk the earth unharmed and. You have to read into that deeply, unharmed means spiritually, physically, mentally, all of the above, right? And she's to lead a life that helps him find God. Because no matter what happens, even the Cherokee knew this. When you're the leader of a family, the man is the leader of the family, right? He's the one going to stand before God. He's the one going to be responsible. The woman does not answer for the family. And even the Cherokee knew this. Oh, yeah, I think that's pretty interesting.

Jason  
Yeah, I'm a firm believer in that. And as I said, our goal for each other is help us achieve the eternal reward that all Christians, yeah, hope to obtain. I mean, that's, that's, that's the promise, and yeah, so for us, that that's our number one goal to each other, and then everything else is second after that. And so, but yes, the wedding is over. I can't believe it's been it's now been a little over a week now, and you know, everybody's congratulating me. And you know, what does it feel like? Well, you know, it feels good. I mean, it's not. I have a question. Radically change your question.

Stoney   
How many people said It's about damn time? Yeah.

Jason  
Well, you know, most, most of my friends were basically telling me that we didn't think you really got especially my friends that go back to like, oh yeah, high school and college or like that, you would ever get married. Jason. It's like, well, you know, I always said, even back then, I said I might consider getting married when I'm around 50. I remember saying really, yeah, look at you, and here I am fulfilling a prophecy, fulfilling the prophecy, you know? So, yeah, it's

Stoney   
and it's kind of funny. We're talking about relationships and marriage, because if gas gets any more expensive or Delta does any more damage to us, we're going to ever the husbands and wives are money cuddling pretty good, just to keep warm.

Jason  
I'm telling you, this stuff is now, of course, you know, right now, people that actually utilize natural gas in their homes are experiencing, I mean, some of these bills, from what I've seen people it to me that I don't even know that that has to be something's wrong with that. I mean, to go from 20 and $30 to, I mean, I saw some people saying bills went up to, like, 464 sitting there going, yeah. How does that even happen?

Ian  
So they must be running their running their heat or a whole lot.

Stoney   
No, no, it's, it's doing exactly the same thing. Okay, it's exactly. And what's funny about the neighborhood that hottie doctor and I live in you're required to have the two lamps on the front door that are gas. You can't have electric light bulbs. They must be the gas lanterns. We can't We can't run that now because we don't know what that's going to do. Yeah, I'm like, you know, that's just crazy. Somebody's bill, I have one person here said their bill went from 25 to $179 that's a 616% increase. She's a she's 74 and stay at home.

Jason  
Yikes. Yeah. I mean people that are on fixed incomes. I mean I'm, I don't know how you can absorb a bill like that? I really

Stoney   
well we have, we asked, we asked for some listeners to reach out to us, and we have one that did. Matt, may I have permission. Absolutely love. This is Barbara from Baton Rouge. You asked local listeners to write in about their experiences with delta. So here I am. I'm a single mother of three. I don't get any help. So you can imagine I live and die by a tight budget. Entergy selling itself to Delta has been a nightmare. I don't know how I'm going to manage, and I'm honestly afraid that I'll have to decide what bills to pay so I can keep my house warm enough for the kids. My bill was 25 to 60 per month under energy. My first bill with Delta doubled. It was 102 by Christmas, it was 180 February was so cold this year, so I'm honestly sick to my stomach about what the next bill is going to be. On top of that, their website is poor. They try every trick to get you to agree to a balanced billing without showing you the actual bill. I don't understand all of the service fees and charges that never existed when energy ran things. I feel like it's a scam. I called the Louisiana Public Service Commission, and they brushed me off, saying gas prices are higher. These fees are not normal exclamations. Mark, they're acting like representatives of delta and not protecting Louisiana consumers. I'm tired of these people, these companies charging people in Louisiana more for everything. We need a break. I really don't know what I can do at this point. That's hard to hear.

Jason  
Well, I'm telling you, even down in the New Orleans area, you know people saying I've been to meetings. She is this lady was somebody I've been on the phone with so many. Delta representative, nothing's been consistent. Sun red resident, who told company executives or gas bill increased from $30 to nearly $200 in three months. I mean, that's just something's wrong with that, you know? I don't, I don't, I don't know. Now they say they'll come back and say the rising natural gas prices, which jumped 56% last year, are also driven by a burgeoning liquefied natural gas global export market. Oh yeah, they say one of eight operational LNG export facilities in the United States, six are in Louisiana, which alone provides more than 60% of all US LNG exports worldwide. I have a feeling what they're doing. They're shipping so much stuff out.

Ian  
Well, they, I also read recently, they're trying to, I think they're trying to get away from using natural gas. And I think so they're probably trying to incentivize. Well, we

Stoney   
got, I got, we got a couple more here. I wasn't exactly ready to get, oh, that we got Jeremy Wilson from Baton Rouge. Said his first bill was $15 then in December, he got a bill for $430

Jason  
that's that's what I saw that. I

Stoney   
mean, are you kidding me? Yeah, something's wrong with that. And then one of the biggest things that people are complaining about, obviously, is the bill, but it's also the customer service when you're trying to deal with Delta, they're asking the same question. You know, when you answer the phone, that's the biggest lie, that they're answering the phones. They tried talking to a supervisor, they said they'd call me back, still waiting four weeks later, you know? So they know they're doing this and they're not engaging people intentionally. I have Miranda's and my bill right here, so I'm going to be one of the complainants of the bill too. Okay? You got $10.71 in customer charges. You got gas charges, $112 gas services, $46 purchase gas adjustment, 5933 okay, I mean there, there's an advanced metering system. Surcharge rider of 43 cents. Gas infrastructure investment recovery rider of almost $7

Jason  
sounds like a lot of BS.

Stoney   
I mean, sounds like we were with the energy. Okay? Miranda always paid the gas bill like during the summer, she would double it, so there was a little kitty at the end for the winter, so it didn't hurt us, right? And I mean, that was for a four month period she had put enough money into that kitty to where it would knock the bill down, pretty good for the first four months. Got used up in the first month. Bill got used up in the first month bill. That's sometimes I'm saying, so you're not even allowed to plan ahead.

Ian  
And the thing is, like it happened at the beginning of the year. So I wonder, like, what transitioned?

Jason  
Well, you know, right now, Delta utilities is owned by barn hard Capital Partners.

Stoney   
Well, that and that is not a private entity. That is a private private equity. Yeah, it's not owned by Black Rock State Street and Vanguard. And I was like, damn it, because I was sure gonna start swinging at them. But Jim barn hard that used to own Shaw, right? He's the owner of barn hard

Jason  
capital, well, you know, he's, he's now passed, well, he was the owner, you

Stoney   
know what I'm saying. He's the one who started that. So whoever is doing that, that's where that came from. And, you know, people are getting charged for having to read, somebody to go read their meter. When they have the smart meters, they're still getting charged the actual going out and checking, reading your meter, fees for having. Smart Meters. Does that make sense to anybody? Well, I mean, and what happened here was, this was a decision made in New Orleans that Louisiana, Mississippi and a couple of other parts around the South are having to deal with by the Council in New Orleans swapping to this company. So, like we're talking about all this stuff in California that you know, Arizona and Nevada are going to have to deal with, because oil and gas is leaving California, so their prices are going to go up. Well, guess what? It's happening to us. This decision is made in New Orleans, and now everybody's going to have to pay for it. Yep. And my question is, like, we've been beating up the FDA and all these where's the Public Service Commission? How much are they getting back in kickbacks to even allow something like this to happen? They're the ones supposed to be protecting us.

Jason  
Yeah, it's they're not. Obviously, they pretty much allow, they pretty much allow them to charge customers like that, that. That's general kind of a principle of theirs. They've always done that. I mean, they said right now. I mean, right now we're looking at costs of natural gas, and a report published this month, the US Energy Information Agency projects natural gas prices could rise another 25% by the end of 2027 so it's 90 times this is, this is even

Ian  
go up higher. I could be wrong, but I think that they're trying to get away from using natural gas. So I wouldn't be surprised if some of this is like incentives to get away from it. Like, you know,

Stoney   
if you can, here in Louisiana, when the hurricanes came, I know you always had a national gap, you could have still cook your food, right?

Ian  
And what I'm saying is, like, on, on the whole as, like the the United States government is, I think, trying their best to, like, step away from some of it to go towards more renewable stuff, potentially. So I'm not saying that's, I'm not saying that they're I'm just saying this could be, I think we're experiencing it on, like, a more local scale, but I think there's bigger things at play that are making it harder for us, and they're not looking at like, what it you know? They don't know what it's like whenever we go through a hurricane.

Stoney   
Well, for Louisiana oversight, the Louisiana Public Service Commission, LPSC regulates all of this. So when you see this bill, you have to understand that all rates must be approved before they can be charged to customers. Infrastructure upgrades are reviewed. Storm Recovery costs often require regulatory approval, and profit margins allowed return on equity are set by the commission. So all of these things got approved by the Commission.

Jason  
Okay? They did all to get they did.

Stoney   
That's what I'm saying, I know they did, because that's what the Louisiana Public Service Commission is about, right? So they just, like,

Ian  
what do they know? What are they not telling us? Like, why did they approve that? Because you got to know that if they approve it, they're like, this. People are gonna hate this. People are gonna people are gonna mob against this.

Stoney   
Well, everybody keeps saying, Well, you know, there's such a great risk in the hurricanes. Okay. Has anybody here done any type of construction?

Ian  
I've done, like home renovation, but not like construction, okay,

Stoney   
where are all the gas pipes?

Jason  
Talking about, like new construction at houses.

Stoney   
No, when it's going into your neighborhood, talking about it's going into your neighborhood, where are the gas pipes in the ground? Thank you. How much is your hurricane really gonna hurt the ground? Why that? Why do you think all the neighborhoods that have underground electricity still have power? Because if it's not up in the air. The hurricane is not really going to affect it. Is it right? So what hurricane damage risk do you have for gas? Every time there's a hurricane, people are still cooking their food on the gas. When the refrigerators and the freezers are defrosting because you got no electricity, people are out in their yards, cooking the gas, cooking on gas. Cooking on gas, yep.

Jason  
Well, according to a statement that the company put out, they say gas consumption surged across our operating footprint by 145% in those months, said Sarah McLaughlin Porteous, a Vice President of Communications for Delta utility. That magically happened? Did they they took over? Yeah, so I'm saying, I'm just curious. Okay, I mean, we bullshit. We've, we've had bad winters when energy had it, but that didn't exist. We had

Stoney   
a bad winter last year. Yes, we had snow. We had snow. Yes, well, this,

Jason  
this purchase, was finalized in July of last year, right? Is when the. Purchase was finalized, right with between energy.

Stoney   
So magically, the day they took over, all these gas prices went up this much. I call bullshit.

Ian  
Well, no, I mean, I wouldn't say that. I've been I mean, they took over in July, and I think everyone's bills been normal until, up until January, this. Well, according was that, was that July's bill? Was that this let me see here, because I can speak from personal I can speak for I have my own numbers right here, and I was paying literally 20 bucks up until, up until January. So delta has been doing okay. Has been keeping things normal, I think, for just long enough until it's like, Okay. Now we're in effect the New Year. Let's hike it up for whatever reason.

Jason  
This is a statement from the Public Service Commission that regulates, you know, rates and these kind of things in the state of Louisiana, because we are aware of the issue and have been in contact with Delta ensure they have been no discrepancies or unauthorized rate increases. We requested 2024 data to compare with 2025 and after reviewing this information, one of the issues is that we have experienced a colder November and December this year, couple that with the price of natural gas increasing from last year, which is a direct pass through to customers, meaning Delta does not make any profit off the cost of natural gas, and that's what I'm talking about. Many customers are seeing higher bills due to more usage also delta customers who were previously with energy gas are now seeing a separate gas bill for the first time. Delta itemizes its bills to increase transparency with its customers on what they are being billed for, which has caused customers to see charges that were once bundled together with energy. We will continue to monitor any systematic complaints and get to the bottom of the causes. That was commissioner Jean Paul cousin,

Ian  
yeah, but I wonder that that's what I'm talking about. About the the natural gas prices going up and being passed straight through to us. It's not a, yes, it probably is a delta utility thing, but I wouldn't be surprised if that's what a lot of what we're seeing is going straight from it.

Stoney   
Look, your bill cannot go up. One customer 612% because they're itemizing your bill. No, no. Okay. If they're itemizing your bill, the bill would be the same. Their transparency is just telling you this is where your

Ian  
money's being spent. I think that, I think that the commissioner is trying to cover his basis by saying you're I think the thing I think he's covering his basis for is we've experienced a cold in November, December, so you're probably seeing some increase there. Most people, most people are cranking the heaters, which is probably not 100% false. And again, he's like, there is some transparency where, like, there is, you know, as far as, like, the itemized list or whatever. But I think that probably the majority is that they can't control is that natural gas is more expensive from the source, and we're eating that cost, and I think that's something we haven't had to do potentially. I could be wrong, but

Jason  
well, you know, as I said, Now, you know, this touches on what's going on worldwide, too, with with with natural gas and so, you know, you can't just kind of isolate it. There's all kind of factors. Probably involves some of this is going, which, to me, prompts me to kind of wonder, why did energy want to sell this?

Ian  
Probably because they didn't want this exactly. I think

Jason  
what's happened is they first saw, yeah, what the price of natural gas was going to do this time last year, they were right. Like, you know, what? The way we need to probably find a buyer to take this on, because we're going to take a hit. Yeah, because, I mean, if, if the price of natural gas at the market that which they buy it in bulk, oh yeah, if it goes up, they're passing that cost on to you, yep, to the to the customer. I mean, they're not gonna eat that, and

Ian  
we don't want to be the bad guy. Yeah, I mean, so,

Jason  
I mean, they said he goes supportious Explain why customers might be seeing an increase in monthly payments this winter. We work, this is her statement. We work to minimize costs through advanced purchases of natural gas when prices are typically lower, but there have been recent increases in market natural gas prices. Those are reflected in customer bills, so we want to make sure they're aware of that. Portia said, said Porteous said, Delta doesn't see a dime from those fees.

Ian  
Interesting, I wonder. Yeah, that's wild, yeah.

Jason  
I mean, look, I don't know. I mean, I think. A lot of people, what I've heard, and this is kind of what I suspect, I think Delta utilities is trying to make up for the purchase,

Ian  
yeah, through raising fees. Oh, that, but that's probably a two.

Jason  
I think that's, that would be a that, that's, that's a very reasonable, yeah, assumption that I would think, okay, delta or Bernhard equities, yeah, when they bought this from energy, they spent a bunch of money. Now we need to make that money up. And we have a captured base of people who can't go anywhere, who can't go anywhere. It's a captured market. And so you're ultimately in these situations, you're ultimately all relying on the Public Service Commission. In the state of Louisiana and other states, it may be different, but in this state, it's governed by the Louisiana the Public Service Commission, and they obviously approved it so

Stoney   
well, it's kind of like the banks. How do banks make money? They lend money, they charge interest. Okay, a lot of that doesn't come back. So what do they do? They charge fees. So they're just using the banking industry thing, let's just charge fees. What can they do? Not use their gas? They're going to pay their fees. What are the banks say you're not going to use the bank. You're going to pay the fees now.

Jason  
They get you one way or the other. Lord, I know. I just I did my taxes this past this week, and I end up, oh, now owed the federal government. I've never owed the federal government. I owe them now. Oh, why is it? Oh, yeah, it hit me pretty good. I think I've got a $3,000 bill.

Stoney   
Yeah, retired and work. Is that right? Three grand? Oh, the Feds never in my life at least, at least now you're married and you can file your taxes. Lee, a little,

Jason  
yeah, that next year will be different, but, but yeah.

Ian  
I mean, they hit me hard. Is that? Was that? Why? Because you were tired and went back to work. Did they, I

Jason  
guess they, well, I noticed in my w2 that for my the new job that I'm in, right, right, right, I noticed that the amount of federal taxes they took out did not match the tax bracket that I'm in interest because I'm in the 24% tax bracket. Yeah. And basically, the person that I was doing my tax you, because there's your problem right there, yeah, I said you're, you're, I mean, they're not even pulling 10% Oh, wow. Of which, to me, I need to figure out what's wrong, because I've always claimed zero the same Yeah, so they're taking out the only time I've ever owed, which is kind of blows my mind. Why was so low I need to deal with at work,

Ian  
the only time I've ever had to I've ever owed taxes, for the same reason is that I whoever I had gotten, whoever was fine, whoever had had me in their system, like my, my employer didn't have me as as, like, single and none I was, I think they gave me the most amount. And I was like, that's not, I always, they've

Jason  
always, they've always raped me, yeah, I mean most of my life, because I've been the only writeouts. Write offs I've ever had were charities, yeah, that I gave money to, and then my home, right? That's it.

Stoney   
We can claim 40 million illegal immigrants as dependents.

Jason  
Can't do that, but just FYI on the Delta utility stuff here, they did roll out a new program that kind of helped. They said, utility provider announced this week. Now this was article 80 at the end of January of this year, the utility provider announced this week that eligible households can receive a one time credit up to $250 applied directly to the natural gas bill every 12 months. The program managed in partnership with United Way, uses Alice, asset, limited, income, constrained employed data to determine eligibility based on income and family size. Wow. So I mean, they, they're they are trying to at least, let's do something, doing something, but I don't really know. I don't, I don't know if,

Ian  
if that's enough, if that's going to help.

Jason  
I mean, I just mean I look and me as somebody that doesn't have gas, I just have electricity in my house, right? This is going to affect me too, because, as gas prices, because of 70% of these, these plants use natural gas to generate electricity. So, I mean, ultimately I'm going to see probably something. I'm sure energy is going to I mean, I don't have energy. I. A company called Demco, right? But, I mean, they're all buying their, their power, or, yeah, from the same, right, same things that are coming from. So, yeah, I mean, so I don't know this is a man. I tell you what, I don't know what I'd do if I felt like I was not gonna get my electric bill, then you can get a another gas bill that's two and 300 bucks. I mean, that's just crazy to me. I just, I just, you know, I'm very reluctant to, you know, it's easy to sit with say, well, blame the blame the Public Service Commission, or blame the maybe they are telling the truth. Maybe, maybe it is. Maybe is the natural gas because of other forces that at one time were not present that are now present is now affecting these deals. And, I mean, we all heard here in Louisiana about all these LNG projects, I mean, that dude been talking about that for years, and I just think, ultimately, I think that affects availability, yeah, which makes it more expensive, right? Whereas, if you're not shipping a bunch of liquefied natural gas overseas, yeah, you got a ton of it here by you, and it makes it plentiful and cheap, right?

Stoney   
You should be plentiful and cheap for us, yeah, and it should be plentiful and cheap for us before we ship it out.

Jason  
Well, I mean, I'd say, well, guess what? So I've been watching on the news, they got a had a major nor'easter hit the East Coast. Oh, oh, yeah, okay, like 30 inches of snow, and he's like, massive storm. That's all they've been talking about. That's not true.

Stoney   
Global warming and climate change. All the lip tards are saying, this is, you know, the earth is warming.

Jason  
They'll say, they'll say that global warming is it doesn't necessarily mean the earth is getting warmer, or, I should say it is getting warmer because of what we're doing, which then makes these wild weather patterns happen.

Stoney   
So the largest ice growth in how many 1000s and 1000s of years in Arctic and Antarctica are happening now? Yeah, okay,

Jason  
uh huh, yeah. Well, you know, I don't necessarily believe we're affecting climate. I don't think climate has always been this, and that you're just the thing is, we're just happened to be here. I mean, I have to think back in during the Ice Age, when our ancestors were trudging through the tundra, you know, I would think when there were, you know, walking, walking around with wooly mammoths, they were freezing to death.

Stoney   
Then they were, they've proven that the dinosaurs created more CO than we do with our cars. Yeah? Oh, there's a bunch. Oh, you got to think about that. What did they eat a lot of plants? Yeah. Okay, so what does that mean? They fought it a lot, yeah, they did.

Jason  
And then when they got wiped out, they made a lot of oil. Well, they made a lot of oil. That's why I That's why there's a lot of oil in the in the Gulf of Gulf of America, there's a lot of oil. And in Texas and Louisiana, Oklahoma, you know, in that part, if you look at how things probably drained, yeah, you know, if you start buying into some of these, you know, theories that you know how things happened, and you know that a lot of animals got washed out that way, but it could be just tons of them were dumped in what would become the Gulf, and this got buried over millions of years, And right stuff like that. So, yeah, yeah. Now it's a gas heat can triple MCF usage month to month. So even a small per unit increase feels like a financial asteroid. Yeah, yeah, right now in Louisiana, just some stats here. Real quick, total, typical, total gas cost is 11 to $12 per MCF. I don't know what MCF stands for. I'm sure it's some unit of measure.

Stoney   
Well, the the the raw natural gas is by million British thermal units. So it's measure, you know, dollars per British Thermal Units, million thermal units. And right in January, it was 772, per British, million British thermal units. In December, it was 426, in November, it was 379, And in October, it was 319 September, it was right around $3 the average in 2025 was 352 the average in 2024 was 219 so 2024 apparently the gas took a nosedive, I think, before actually, not to interrupt you, I'm sorry, in 2022 it was 645 but we didn't see these spikes like this in 2022 in gas. So I'm calling bullshit again. And then in 2021 the average is about 389 so I was just curious, over the last five or six years what the gas prices were, but it's mm, BTU. So it's, it's million British thermal units, is how it's measured. I guess, when it's come how they to the data,

Jason  
how they meter it.

Ian  
MCF is the same thing. So M is 1000 cubic feet, okay, so mm is a million,

Jason  
a million cubic feet. So it's 11 to $12 per million cubic feet.

Ian  
Yeah, yeah. And then it, and then there's CCF, which is 100 cubic feet.

Jason  
Okay, they said it's so it's it. The irony of, of all this, is this an interesting twist, is that Louisiana sits on massive natural gas production while local bills rise, a classic case of global LNG markets colliding with local, regulated monopolies when export demand spikes, local distribution customers feel it, even though the gas comes from their own backyard. Wow. Energy markets don't care about geography. They care about price signals, interesting. That's kind of what I'm talking about. We do have a ton of it that's sitting on, you know, in in but it's not all promised us, but it's not all promises. It's promised other people in other parts of the world. So, you know, it's kind of the nature of now, the International, international business world that we live in now. So, yeah, wow, we are.

Ian  
I watched a I watched a video recently from Hank Green about this, about natural gas stuff, and I want to re watch it now, because I'm curious.

Jason  
What do you mean Hank Green?

Ian  
Here's like, a YouTube guy who like science type content, stuff and and things about that. And I remember, it was probably a few months ago. I watched a video about natural gas and the in the in the mining of it, and how there's other gas that comes out of it that we don't really use for anything, but we still harvest it, and there's regulations on burning a certain amount of it and right and how much. Anyways, I It's been a while since I watched it, but now that we're talking about this, it's made me think about it again, where I was like, oh, wanna go watch that video again. Because it may be,

Jason  
I don't know, they say residential monthly customer charge proposed to rise from $24 to $33.60 which is about is about a 40% bump. Wow, and consumption rate proposed from $5.25 to $6.60 per million cubic feet, which is about another 25% increase. So it, you know, it doesn't take much, yeah, for you to feel it in the bill. I mean, it really doesn't so

Ian  
and we got another cold snap coming through. Well, yeah, be careful. Yeah, on that heater a little less than, I guess,

Jason  
yeah, we were. I mean, it's, it's until winter it's passed, yeah, you know. But some parts of the country really, are really gripped them, gripped in a lot of coal right now. I mean, it's cool down here, but, yeah, we don't really, you know, we don't really have to deal with that too much here, thank goodness. I won't deal with heat. But you know, it takes, it takes a lot more energy to generate heat, yes, than it just does to power an air conditioner, you know, during the during the heat of the day.

Ian  
So my biggest utility bill has always been my power bill because of the AC here, the two things that show up the most on mine have always been my my air conditioning unit and my washer and dryer I can, I can visibly see the difference in in whatever. I don't run the AC a lot, and when I, you know, be conservative on washing clothes and things like that.

Jason  
But I'd like to know what prompted the sale. That, to me, is where I think the interest. I wouldn't be surprised if the interesting story is, why did energy Google that I wonder what Google has to say, maybe any articles that kind of maybe predate this event, that maybe what was energy thinking about wanting to unload that I just find it true.

Ian  
Strange. It says that inter, this is the, this is the overview. So again, this may not be 100% factual, but it says that, or this may be like the PR statement energy sold its natural gas distribution business to Delta utilities in July 2025 for approximately 484 million in cash that's not very much to sharpen its focus and on expanding its core electric utility operations. The strategic move allows energy to invest in a cleaner, more resilient energy future, utilizing the proceeds to repay debt and fund capital investments in growing electric business that are more focused on the electric side. So they're, they're investing more. And this I'm talking about, I think that the I think that there is regulations that are pushing away from natural gas to use more electric so wouldn't be surprised if they are, they are seeing the money

Jason  
moving now I'm beginning something is starting to connect some dots with me right now because of an article that just got us all today, okay, they're projecting to build three more AI data centers.

Ian  
There you go. Louisiana. Yep,

Jason  
10 billion.

Ian  
You better believe energies on top

Jason  
invest on an electric way, and guess what, they require a lot of electricity. Now I'm beginning to wonder, okay, let me shed this off, because we need to focus on building more electric power, because we have customers. We gotta, we gotta, we gotta, be able to run these data centers. You may want to pull that up in the latest news, Governor Landry made an announcement that Amazon, these are Amazon data centers. Okay? And literally, the article just hit today,

Ian  
let's see new data centers,

Jason  
and they're all in North Louisiana, of course, probably got a lot more land.

Ian  
Oh, Amazon selects Louisiana for $12 billion data center campuses in major US expansion projects is expected to create 540 on site, new jobs and support an additional 1700 and community overall. Blah, blah, blah, Shreveport, Louisiana, yeah, so there's a

Jason  
that I 20 corridor is gonna be a, I think, the the the the AI tech area, I'm not saying it those things could maybe spawn off Amazon other businesses from that.

Ian  
Amazon is making a long term commitment to Louisiana, because our state delivers prime sites, strong infrastructure and a skilled, hard working workforce ready to support the next generation of technological innovation, says Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry, investments of this magnitude put Louisiana at the center of operations relied on across the country, and connect our communities to jobs that power how America how Americans live and work and do business.

Jason  
I worry about the the the after effects of that. I think because of the power requirements, I can see now that utility bills are going to rise for Louisiana residents, I I hate to say that because you're excited for one thing, that you're having outside investment coming in and providing some high price, some high paying jobs for people, right, which is what you want, right? But at the same time, I think is a byproduct of that. I think unless you ramp up electric power plants that can produce electricity, which we all know about how hard it is to build plants in this country now, whereas at one time we build them right and left, yeah, it just seems like between trying to get the permits and you know, you're dealing with EPA. And I'm not saying that's not important. It is important because you want to make sure you're not destroying your environment. But at same time, you know, we should be throwing up power plants right next to these, these data centers, yes, to be able to all kind of where you're not gonna right, have to deal with this stuff, because the

Stoney   
people who are building the data centers should have to pay for this 100 not us. Yes, and that's not what's happening.

Jason  
No, no, and that's what worries me, is because what happens is the grid's gonna get overloaded, and then when you gonna have to start doing brown outs and or even blackouts, that's already happening. California, you know. And that's what kind of worries me right now about that. So, you know, while part of me is excited, a part of me is

Stoney   
we're gonna have to protect the data center from getting hot. So you're gonna have to shut your electricity off to protect our

Jason  
Exactly. So

Ian  
somebody, somebody shuts my AC down in the middle this summer, I'm out

Jason  
to me. They Yeah, what are you gonna do? Oh, you better get some fans. Yeah, we can do, you know, battery powered fan, because that's, that's, there's no way. So all you're gonna have, but, yeah, I mean, we got to deal with that. I mean, that's a, that's a distinct possibility, yeah, that you're gonna see a rise in electricity prices, because the the

Ian  
lower, there's also a mass lowering of solar panels. I'll start loading the boys up.

Jason  
I mean, look, you know, I'm not opposed to people who put solar panels on their roofs, you know, hey. I mean, if I can generate mono electricity, yeah, you know, it's not, means you're not going to be still, not gonna be charged. Oh, I know, I know, you know. I mean, it's, I'm just like,

Stoney   
California's charging people for on their electric bills, for not using electricity. Now, California is passing laws that if you use an electric vehicle and you aren't buying gasoline, which they get their taxes from, you're being charged a non gasoline usage tax.

Jason  
I think California's got some problems. Yeah, I have to deal with I'm I'm not one to I don't know that that state has done. They just do some goofy things. And it's unfortunate, because I got a lot of good, hard working people there. It's just, unfortunately, they'd run by the loons over there, and just they keep voting for the same stuff over and over again. I saw something. They've passed a wealth tax. So now, yeah, you know people are just gonna leave. I mean, I hate to say that. I mean, it's just people are gonna live in areas where they feel like I ain't paying 60, yeah, percent of my paycheck between federal, state, local taxes, I mean, because that's ultimately what it comes down to.

Stoney   
Well, somebody figured out, if you make a million dollars in New York and you use mondami's plan after taxes, you'll make $150,000

Jason  
yeah, for, wait, what? And for some people, they would say, well, that's enough money for you. For the other side of the political argument, you would say, people say, Well, if you can't live on that, there's something wrong with you. I mean, that's just the argument that's where we're at right now. And you got a bunch of people that are are utterly dependent upon the government, and the idea of going out there, creating my own wealth in a legitimate, legal way is just not there. You know, it's just, they're just not it's just not there. But, I mean, we do, we're going to have to start building power plants. And I hope that this state, that they do approve and get power plant construction up and going again. And that was, I think we have to do that. I know nobody likes building plants, but we got to get back to that. Have you got, you know, I just we need to start looking at nuclear again. Well, there's a lot of people that I saw an article about nuclear plants, and cancer rates are on nuclear plants. You know,

Stoney   
that's not true. And then the next thing is, is the waste disposal? Okay? If you take Tiger Stadium, from the end goal line to the end goal line to the two wide lines. Okay, that's the space you're looking at. If you take all of the nuclear waste that's ever been created from all of the nuclear plants, and you start at the back goal line. Okay, you got the goal line where the touchdown is, and you start on the back goal line, and you lay every one of those canisters of waste. How many times do you fill up Tiger Stadium? I have no idea. Take a guess. Not even half. You don't even make it to the 22

Jason  
yard line, because they use those for the fuel rods, I believe, okay,

Stoney   
and you stack them, yeah, you don't even make so what do they complain?

Ian  
They also have ways of like and it's one of those things that it's because it's the same thing that's been going on for years. The Big Oil and big gas industry. Hold on there the scary.

Jason  
We'll kind of talk about some of this on next episode, yeah.

Stoney   
But anyways, I think it's kind of funny how all this ties into

Ian  
each other. Yeah, follow the money. We've been talking about that for months now. I feel like you know

Stoney   
what want to build. You build a nuclear plant. You want to put your data. Out of center here, you build a nuclear plant and you provide electricity to the people around you,

Jason  
yeah, well, to me, they need, that's the building. They need to build a nuclear plant somewhere and in Central North Louisiana, and that way you would have

Stoney   
st Francisville. No, that's central Louisiana.

Jason  
Be up north of Alexandria,

Stoney   
oh, a little further

Jason  
north somewhere, because that's where all those AI data centers seem to be. I know one is being built in the st Francisville area. But I think some of these ones that Amazon just mentioned, I know one they're building at St friend. They want to tap off in the new, yeah, they need to build a plant. I know it takes forever to build plants. Regulation seems like China. It seems like China throws them up, you know, like, like Legos. But we seem to have so many problems just building things today. It's, I don't know how in the world we we function, but that's the case. May be, but, yeah. But you know, once again, as I said a few episodes back, we are, we are inadvertently building, we are building our own doom. We're laying infrastructure for the for the AI world. I don't think we, we understand that yet. I think there's a lot of unknowns with that. Some people say it's doom and gloom. Others say, Well, you know, it's not as bad as what they think. And I'm

Stoney   
just calling it Skynet because you remember the last episode you were talking about the num chucking robots. Did you did you look that video up, I did not they actually had to cut the pants off of one of them to prove that it wasn't a person inside the suit. And yeah, they started fighting amongst each other.

Jason  
I saw that Amazon is going to be implementing air delivery to residents.

Stoney   
They've already done that. They've been doing that. And well, like San Francisco, yeah, they've been doing that.

Jason  
Can you imagine a drone showing up at your house? I'm gonna tell you what these drones are, just Oh yeah. I mean, all right, now, now, what's I know this completely off topic, but what's been going on, what happened in Mexico with the assassination of the drug lord, and then what's been happening? I had no idea the amount of drone incursions that the Mexican cartels have been pushing into other cities. You know, they're trapping bombs to them. Oh yeah, it's pretty serious.

Stoney   
I think the drones were coming across right I think to America.

Jason  
I think the US military is, I think things are fixing to break down and that I think that country, I think, well,

Stoney   
you know what, the next war is probably gonna happen on the sand, send the military down to the border and let them practice. Oh, look, a drone.

Jason  
So, yeah, who can shoot? I just, but, you know, it's kind of all, maybe we can bring talk about that another week.

Stoney   
And you know when, when the fighter pilots, they shoot down, what is it? Five planes to get? Ace, yeah. You can get a little a sticker on your helmet. Shoot down five drones. You get a little drones, yeah, drone, ace, yeah.

Jason  
It's yeah, but we're the AI world. I think, you know, seem like Louisiana is going to be a major player. Yep. And then the data center situation, which is going to bring issues that, I hope that some people are not looking at the short term, look at the long term, and understand, okay, there's gonna be consequences. There's always a there's there's unavoidable things that by by doing something, you create another chain of events.

Stoney   
If they don't look at that, they look at, how's this gonna affect my pocket? Politicians to service commissions, everybody wants to know. How's this gonna affect my pocket right now. Look at, look at what, um, what was that town that just arrested 356 public officials for corruption?

Jason  
I don't know. You just, just people can't do the right thing.

Stoney   
No, they can't. Public Service Commission is for us. The FDA is for us. You know, you look at the FDA and what they've allowed and how many reports of FDA officials in the meat packing plants taking money to let stuff go back when journalism was real and they were finding this stuff out for reals, right? It's crazy.

Jason  
I saw something regarding, you know, before we close out, I was wanted to mention that there is a, I can't seem to find it now, but delta provided a phone number, okay,

Stoney   
that nobody can reach. That's what. Said in here, yeah, they provided a number to answer questions, and nobody can get anybody on it, of course, well, because

Jason  
probably it overloaded right now. Can y'all find that number? I don't, I don't remember where. Maybe I've missed it here.

Ian  
I have their customer service number. I'm not sure that's the one or not, but you mean to say it, yeah, please do 1833358299,

Ian  
in case you Yeah.

Jason  
So yeah, for people that are that need to try some to get this, but I don't be honest with you, I think people just gonna I think people just screwed, because there's what do you do? Yeah. I mean, you could you got either pay the bill or they cut you off. So, right? Take your pick, right?

Stoney   
Yeah. Well, you got no choices. Thank

Ian  
you all for your personal accounts we had asked for. It was really cool to hear from people. Sorry to hear that so many people are suffering from this. But I think we're gonna probably see what's happening on the other happening on the other side. If you would like to get in touch with us in any other way, we have comment sections on Spotify or on YouTube that you can reach out to us. Or we have the email address get offended together@gmail.com, or you could also let us know what you think subscribe and or like on all the platforms you listen to us on, we really appreciate it. Until next week. Thank you so much for listening. Bye, bye, goodbye everyone

Jason  
and God bless

Stoney   
if natural gas prices keep climbing, we may have to go old school. Turn the thermostat down, turn the affection up. Boomers call it conserving. Gen X. Call it survival. Millennials call it sustainable, living, whatever you call it, hugging is still free. Snuggling does not require regulatory approval, and body heat has 100% domestic chain. So if your gas bill spikes next month, maybe the answer isn't panic. Maybe it's a blanket a spouse and a little less complaining, because love may not fix your utility bill, but it will keep you warmer than arguing about it, you're the best peace.