MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The Public Service Commission will make a final ruling on the Hope Gas rate increase settlement in December, and the rates will go into effect in February of 2026.
On MetroNews “Talkline,” Hope Gas President and CEO Morgan O’Brien said the settlement was reached because all parties at the table were looking for a positive outcome that would benefit all sides.
“Hope feels like it was treated fairly, the consumer group who represent residential customers felt they were treated fairly, and the producers, to their credit, came to the table and agreed to what they’d be willing to pay,” O’Brien said.
The initial rate request would have equaled a revenue boost of just short of $80 million, and the settlement brings that figure down to about $40.2 million. If the final order is approved by the PSC in December, the rate increase would be around 21% and take effect in February of 2026.
“With this settlement the average monthly bill for a Hope Gas resident will be up about $18 a month,” O’Brien said. “I know $18 a month is real money, and I’m not belittling that.”
The negotiations included much debate about the gathering lines that serve 15,000 customers. This factor was also a first for a rate case of this type, but it was known early on that some of the gathering systems, including the Equitrans network of lines, were in need of significant repairs. The customers served by the lines normally deal with frequent outages, but during the very cold 2024-25 winter, there were no outages.
“We stepped in that litigation and said we wanted to protect those families and that it was a really important issue,” O’Brien said. “We did tell people it was going to cost more to fix those pipes and make sure those families were safe.”
O’Brien made it clear the rate case did not include the naming rights expenses with WVU or other donations made throughout the state. Hope Gas recently entered into a high-profile deal to rename the Coliseum on the WVU Morgantown campus the “Hope Coliseum” at a cost of $2 million annually for the next ten years.
“I’ll take all of the blame for that, but the reality is they were completely unrelated and didn’t impact the settlement at all,” O’Brien said. “All of the parties knew those dollars were not in the case.”
Also not included in the rate case is the construction cost of a 30-mile pipeline from the western end of Monongalia County into Morgantown. That pipeline creates a backup if a problem should ever occur with the main and supports economic development in the growing Morgantown area.
The pipeline is being energized this week, according to O’Brien.
“We now have additional capacity to help the hospitals that keep growing in Morgantown and the economic development there,” O’Brien said. “None of the $200 million for that pipeline was included in this rate case.”