Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office has asked the Department of Public Utilities to reject a petition by Bay State Gas Co. to increase the company’s rates.
The proposed increase would raise the gas distribution change for the average residential customer by more than 5 percent, Coakley’s office said. The total proposed increase is $7.5 million.
The attorney general’s office said Bay State, a subsidiary of Indiana-based NiSource Inc. that sells gas to about 285,000 customers in Massachusetts, earned an 8.26 rate of return in 2007.
