JEA CEO predicts ‘good news’ for customers in March despite conflicts overseas

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — From the stock market to the fuel in your car, you can bet the Russia-Ukraine invasion is impacting our economy.

The price of oil hit an eight year high this week, topping out at $3.49 per gallon, according to AAA. Oil surged to $100 a barrel. Natural gas prices also climbed.

Jacksonville Electric Association (JEA) CEO, Jay Stowe said this will affect the utilities fuel acquisition. However, he said customers will not see their bills go up, for now.

“The good news is that we’ve got significant amount of our gas already bought,” Stowe said. “We’ll be able to protect our customers as best we can for as long as we can.”

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Stowe said the utility company has an active hedging program to try to stabilize the customer’s bill as much as possible. He said for the month of March, customers could see a slight drop in price.

“We’ll see a decrease in March,” Stowe said. “Then we hope that what we’ll see is a relatively flat natural gas cost and fuel cost, going forward.”

If prices do continue to increase on natural gas, JEA may have to pass that cost onto its customers down the road.

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