Juneau’s garbage company is planning to lower its fuel surcharge by a tenth of a percent, according to a Tuesday filing with state regulators.
Due to low fuel prices, Alaska Pacific Environmental Services already has a negative fuel surcharge; customers’ bills are discounted 1.4 percent. The filing asks regulators to increase the discount to 1.5 percent.
In July 2014, state regulators approved a request from Alaska Pacific to add a fuel surcharge to Juneauites’ garbage bills. That surcharge, which is adjusted quarterly, is a way for the company to compensate for the fluctuating price of diesel fuel used in the company’s garbage trucks.
Since the surcharge was installed, it has always been a negative charge — in effect discounting customers’ bills. The first revision, filed in November 2014, lowered the surcharge from 0 to negative 0.9 percent.
Since then, the surcharge has dipped as low as negative 1.9 percent before rebounding with the price of fuel.
According to figures provided by Pacific Waste, the company’s base fuel cost is $4.05/gallon for diesel and $4.11/gallon for unleaded, though the fuel surcharge may not be exactly zero at those pump prices because of accounting factors.
Tuesday’s filing must be approved by the Regulatory Commission of Alaska before becoming effective.
