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0 • <br />• • <br />CITY OF LA PORTE <br />IN RE: NATURAL GAS "BANKING" X <br />RATE DISCRIMINATION OF COASTAL X GAS UTILITY <br />STATES GAS PRODUCING COMPANY X RESOLUTION REQUEST <br />AND LO-VACA GATHERING COMPANY X <br />ORIGINAL PETITION OF TERENCE L. O'ROURKE <br />COMES NOW Terence O'Rourke, before this Honorable Mayor and <br />governing body and hereby requests that said body file before the <br />Texas Railroad Commission a formal request for the immediate termi- <br />nation of all natural gas "banking" exceptions to the regulated rates <br />applying to Coastal States Gas Producing Company and the Lo-Vaca <br />Gathering Company, and in support thereof would respectfully show <br />the following, to -wit: <br />• I. <br />Texas consumers are paying $130,000 per day in excess charges <br />for natural gas as the result of rate discrimination resulting from <br />natural gas "banking" deals. <br />II. <br />Through such "banking" deals, the Texas Railroad Commission has <br />permitted Coastal States and Lo-Vaca to supply natural gas to a select <br />group of big companies such as Amoco Oil Company, Dow Chemical Company, <br />and Kerr-McGee Oil Company at giveaway prices as low as twenty (20) <br />cents per thousand cubic feet (Mcf) -- when all others, principally <br />ordinary consumers, are paying prices approaching two dollars ($2.00) <br />for the same volumes. <br />• These "banking" deals have already resulted in the direct trans- <br />fer from the consumer to these companies of almost $50 million. <br />Figures based upon an independent analysis by the accounting firm of <br />Arthur Andersen & Company show the ultimate direct cost to consumers <br />will be $150 million if the Railroad Commission does not act to end <br />this incredible giveaway. <br />IV. <br />These "banking" deals came into existence in 1973, when the <br />Railroad Commission suspended all fixed -price contracts of Lo-Vaca, <br />such as the rates charged to cities -- all, that is, except the fixed - <br />price contracts contrived as "banking" deals. Such deals purported to <br />