Intermountain Gas rates increase in Idaho
Published 12:31 pm Monday, January 5, 2026
The Idaho Public Utilities Commission in a Dec. 30 order approved a settlement that will allow Boise-based Intermountain Gas to increase the rates it charges residential and general service commercial customers.
Changes in the general service commercial category impact production agriculture to an extent.
Under the settlement, the average residential customer’s monthly bill increased by $2.45 or 6.02%, effective Jan. 1, according to a commission news release. The average general service commercial customer’s monthly bill increased by $4.42 or 2.46%.
The settlement also includes increases in the monthly service charge: up $3 to $11 for residential customers and up $8 to $23 in the general service commercial category.
Ag impact
New Intermountain Gas commercial rates “affect us, but not drastically,” said Big D Ranch manager Richard Durrant. Natural gas is “still a much better value than propane. I’m not going to complain given where everything else is valued.”
The Meridian, Idaho, business is a licensed commodity dealer that stores farmers’ wheat and markets wheat locally. Big D also handles corn, dry edible beans, and barley.
“To dry the corn (for storage), we use a substantial amount of natural gas,” Durrant said.
Nitrogen fertilizer manufacturing is a major user of natural gas, though “I don’t know of anybody in Idaho doing that,” he said.
Phosphate fertilizer is manufactured in the state’s southeast region. Some natural gas is used to generate heat required in phosphate fertilizer production, Durrant said.
Increase lower than requested
Intermountain Gas in a May 30 application called for average monthly bills to increase by $4.69 or 11.46% on the residential side and by $9.26 or 5.16% for commercial customers, according to a same-day news release that cited “unprecedented growth” in its service area and rising costs. Since the company’s last rate case, operating and maintenance costs had increased by an average of 5.3% — on higher labor and benefit costs and increased spending on infrastructure.
Previous base rates and service charges were approved by the commission in 2023, according to the application.
The PUC in its Dec. 30 final order said the settlement “appropriately balances customers’ desires for a smaller rate increase relative to that sought by the company with the company’s opportunity to recover the costs it incurs to provide service to customers and to earn a fair rate of return.”
The settlement “allows Intermountain Gas to operate sustainably while protecting customers from a rate increase that would be burdensome,” according to the commission news release.