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Speaker 1: Liberty Utilities, the provider of natural gas to much of

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Speaker 1: Bristol County, requested a distribution rate increase to make up

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Speaker 1: its costs and generate some fifty five million in revenue.

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Speaker 1: Problem is, as Fall River Mayor Paul Coogan puts it,

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Speaker 1: the proposed rate would be a fifty five percent rate

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Speaker 1: increase for all gas customers on average next year, about

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Speaker 1: ninety percent at the turn of the decade.

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Speaker 2: But to come in, you know, for ten years and

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Speaker 2: say we never asked for a rate increase and then

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Speaker 2: we're going to hit you all at once, I just

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Speaker 2: think that's the wrong, wrong way to handle it.

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Speaker 1: Liberty says the increase helps pad them over from their

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Speaker 1: pipe replacement work, and a performance based rate matching program

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Speaker 1: would prevent huge price jumps.

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Speaker 2: Again, our income marks are all below the state average.

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Speaker 2: At the same time, it's a hard working community with

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Speaker 2: good people. And at the same time, Liberty's been a

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Speaker 2: good neighbor to fall Over. But on this one, I

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Speaker 2: don't agree with them at all.

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Speaker 1: Jay will Let WBZ, Boston's news radio