By Julie A. Miller
Catholic Herald

High heating costs fuel protests by pastors

SUPERIOR -- Several pastors in Superior have started a campaign to get some answers about skyrocketing natural gas prices.

Fr. Dan Dahlberg, pastor of Cathedral of Christ the King Parish, Franciscan Fr. Ron Olson, pastor of Holy Assumption and St. William parishes, and Fr. Dean Buttrick, pastor of St. Anthony Parish, are urging parishioners to contact Washington.

The priests included a plea in their parish bulletins, with information on how to contact U.S. Senators Russell Feingold and Herb Kohl and U. S. Representative David Obey. Buttrick and Olsen also talked to their congregations about the issue at Mass.

It was a natural gas bill of over $25,000 for December and January that really got Dahlberg's attention. The amount, which was for heating the Cathedral, the Cathedral School and the parish offices, was more than double the bills he received for the same period last year.

While Dahlberg is concerned about the impact on the parish budget, he is more concerned about parishioners who are receiving similar increases and are struggling to find the money.

Noting the difficulty in switching to a different kind of fuel, Dahlberg said, "Once you are on natural gas, you are a hostage."

"There has to be some kind of federal regulation," he added. "Some of the gas also comes from Canada. My questions is, 'Who regulates this? Is it so deregulated that we are just stuck with these prices?'"

Buttrick has seen total bills from November through February for his Superior parish rise to $7,820, an increase of about $2,970 over last year. He said the bills would have been even worse, but additional insulation was added to the church a few years ago. (He has not yet reviewed the bills for the Lake Nebagamon church.)

Buttrick wants parishioners to ask their senators and representatives to "tackle the problem and that they do something about the high rate of increase. That is unjust. For individual people it's terrible."

Superior Water Light and Power supplies natural gas in Douglas County. General Manager Bill Bombich said they are not the "bad guy" in this situation. Their portion of the bill, the costs of actually bringing the gas to customers, has not increased. "This year, where the price has more than doubled, we get the same amount."

One way the company tries to keep the costs down is by buying gas in the summer at lower prices and injecting it in the ground to use during the winter, Bombich said.

Xcel Energy is the gas company for much of the diocese. Spokesman Brian Elwood explained that the portion of bills that has gone up is the gas supply charge, the amount Xcel has to pay to the suppliers of natural gas. "We're averaging 60 to 70 percent more this winter than last year. It's a straight pass through to the suppliers. Whatever we pay the suppliers is what we must in turn collect from the customers."

Elwood added, "It is unregulated and is traded like any other commodity. Largely these types of commodities are subject to supply and demand. Low supply and high demand results in higher prices."

Energy conservation is one way to fight back. Benedictine Fr. Dismas B. Kalcic, pastor of St. Paul Parish in Catawba, considers energy management a science. He uses a "night mode" temperature setting of 50 degrees at St. Paul Church when the building is not in use.

Another element in saving fuel is choosing which parts of a building to use for different activities. Kalcic said, "If I were to build a church in this area, I would definitely build a chapel that could be heated separately that could be used for daily Mass." Kalcic is also pastor of St. John the Baptist in Prentice.

In the Hurley-Montreal-Pence-Saxon cluster, the natural gas bills have been about 20 to 25 percent higher than last year. "It's not the kind of thing you can budget for. You just have to cope," said Fr. Bob O'Connell, cluster pastor.

He added that the churches conserve energy whenever possible by turning down thermostats. As a more long-term solution, two of the parishes are planning to install new, more efficient furnaces.

St. Mary Church in Bruce had a $930 gas bill in January with a fairly new system. Fr. Lewis Burden said that was almost double last year's bill.

To economize, Burden is considering installing a computer controlled thermostat. Right now the church has to stay at 65 degrees all the time since there is no one there to turn up the heat before daily Mass. Burden is pastor of the Weyerhaeuser-Bruce-Flambeau-Strickland cluster.

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© Superior Catholic Herald, 2001