LAS CRUCES - The city is contesting millions of dollars in penalties and higher gas bills, costs incurred during a winter storm in February that caused freezing temperatures and snow — the same storm which crippled the Texas power grid.
On Valentine's Day weekend, a winter storm brought snow and cold temperatures to the Mesilla Valley. The snow, icy conditions and freezing temperatures also brought loss of heat and power outages to Texas for days and left more than 110 dead.
Residents in Las Cruces did not experience similar outages. But on Tuesday, the city-owned Las Cruces Utilities announced customers will begin to pay more on their monthly gas bills, beginning this month, to recover the cost of service for that single storm.