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Kansas Gas Service urges investment, cites bill under consideration to address infrastructure timing
Summary
Kansas Gas Service told the committee that timely investments and regulatory treatment to reduce 'regulatory lag' are essential to capture economic-development projects; the company noted it is pursuing House Bill 24-35 and offered to follow up with committee members.
Patrick Volksberg of Kansas Gas Service told the committee that natural gas is frequently the first question from developers assessing a project and that timely, predictable infrastructure investment is critical to capturing economic-development opportunities.
Volksberg said Kansas Gas Service is a division of ONE Gas, serves roughly 651,000 customers across 360 communities in Kansas, and that the state overall has approximately 892,000 gas customers (figures given in testimony). He emphasized the importance of reducing regulatory lag — the delay between investment and cost recovery in base rates — because long delays raise costs for utilities and may deter projects. "If that million dollars isn't timely invested, it doesn't matter where the other 99 isn't coming," he said, explaining that infrastructure must be available when development decisions are made.
Volksberg also noted a company-backed legislative measure, House Bill 24-35, is under consideration and has had a hearing in the chairman's committee; he said he would be happy to share follow-up results with members. He provided operational details — average residential use of about 73 MCF per year and commercial averages of about 456 MCF per year — and described KGS' access to supply basins (including Rockies receipts) as a reliability and pricing advantage.
The exchange ended with Volksberg offering to meet offline with members for technical follow-up. The committee did not vote on HB 24-35 during this meeting.
