Blue flame on a gas stove burner, the kind of household use billed under the Atmos rate increase

Atmos Rate Increase: What $13.37 More a Month Means

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The Atmos rate increase approved by city councils across North Texas in August and September took effect on bills rendered on or after Oct. 1, and Atmos Energy’s own comparison puts the average residential gas bill $13.37 a month higher, a 14.15% jump. The change comes from a negotiated settlement between Atmos Energy’s Mid-Tex Division and the Atmos Cities Steering Committee, a coalition of cities that reviews the company’s annual rate requests.

City records from Mesquite, Benbrook, Forney and Bartonville spell out the numbers, down to the charge per hundred cubic feet.

What the cities approved

Atmos filed its 2026 Rate Review Mechanism request on or about April 1, based on a test year that ended Dec. 31, 2025. The company said it needed $291.1 million in additional revenue across its Mid-Tex system.

A Forney council memo from Aug. 4 lays out how that number came down. Applying the standards in the coalition’s rate tariff cut the request to $273.6 million. The coalition’s consultants concluded the shortfall should be $253.4 million. The two sides settled at $260.5 million, which the memo calls a $30 million reduction from the original request.

The memo says Forney is one of 182 cities in the coalition, counting Forney and “181 other Mid-Texas cities.” Each member had to approve the settlement before Oct. 1. Mesquite adopted Ordinance No. 5272 on second and final reading Sept. 8, signed by Mayor Daniel Alemán Jr. Bartonville’s town council took up a resolution Sept. 15, and Benbrook’s council packet carried Resolution No. 2026-06 with the new tariffs attached.

The Atmos rate increase on a residential bill

The Atmos rate increase is all in the delivery side of the bill, the part Atmos charges to run its pipes and meters. The cost of the gas itself does not change because of this settlement.

Atmos Energy’s average bill comparison, attached to the Benbrook resolution, shows a residential customer using 40.7 hundred cubic feet, or Ccf, of gas a month:

  • Monthly customer charge: $24.35, up from $23.65.
  • Consumption charge: $1.03839 per Ccf, up from $0.74748.
  • Base rates on that bill: $66.64, up from $54.09, an increase of 23.20%.
  • Gas cost under the company’s gas cost rider: $34.62, unchanged.
  • Total residential bill with fees and taxes: $107.85, up from $94.48.

Mesquite’s ordinance lists the same $24.35 customer charge and $1.03839 consumption rate for bills rendered on or after Oct. 1, 2026. It also lists a separate 5 cent monthly conservation surcharge that began in July, which brings the total customer charge to $24.40.

Commercial customers see a smaller percentage change. At 372.6 Ccf, the comparison shows the commercial bill rising $44.82 a month, or 9.90%, to $497.75, with the commercial customer charge rising to $115.50 from $94.

What it costs at your usage

Gas use swings with the seasons, so Never Late News applied the old and new rates to several usage levels. We held the gas cost riders and the fee and tax factor at the levels in the Atmos comparison. Real bills will differ because the gas cost portion changes month to month.

  • 20 Ccf, a light month: about $59.22 before, $66.16 now, up $6.94.
  • 40.7 Ccf, the Atmos average: $94.48 before, $107.85 now, up $13.37.
  • 60 Ccf: about $127.29 before, $146.62 now, up $19.34.
  • 100 Ccf: about $195.35 before, $227.08 now, up $31.73.

At the average level, the Atmos rate increase adds up to about $160 a year. Because the consumption charge rose by nearly 30 cents per Ccf, the dollar increase grows with use. Households that heat with gas will feel it most in winter months.

To check your own bill, look for your monthly Ccf on the statement and multiply by about 31 cents, then add about 75 cents for the higher customer charge. Those figures already include fees and taxes, so the result lands close to your monthly increase. At 40.7 Ccf, it works out to $13.37.

Who is covered, and who is not

The Atmos rate increase described here applies in cities that belong to the coalition and use the Rate Review Mechanism. A Bartonville staff memo notes that other Atmos customers fall under different processes: the City of Dallas has its own annual review, known as DARR, some cities are on the state Gas Reliability Infrastructure Program, known as GRIP, and unincorporated areas have their own rate schedule.

The coalition prefers its process to GRIP. Forney’s memo says GRIP “constitutes piecemeal ratemaking” by ignoring falling expenses and rising revenues while rewarding the company for new capital investment, and that cities cannot take part in the Railroad Commission’s review of those filings. Under the Rate Review Mechanism, the memo says, expenses, revenues and capital investment are all reviewed each year. The Bartonville memo adds that Atmos reimburses member cities for their legal and consulting costs.

The Bartonville memo also includes a table comparing average residential bills in the four rate areas after Oct. 1. It does not state the usage level behind those figures, so we did not compare them with the Atmos numbers above.

Part of a wider energy bill story

Gas delivery is one piece of what North Texas households pay for energy. Rider FF, the franchise fee adjustment in the tariff, is calculated on the rest of the bill, so it grows when base rates rise. On the electric side, our report on Oncor’s Collin County grid upgrades covers new grid spending, and our story on Denton’s data center rules looks at how cities are handling large new power users.

How Never Late News reported this

The settlement figures come from the city records below, which adopt or explain the Atmos Mid-Tex deal. Each number was checked against the original.

The usage table, the annual figure and the quick bill check are Never Late News calculations from the Atmos comparison. No interviews were conducted for this report. To report an error, email editor@neverlatenews.com.

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