Natural gas prices are low, but your monthly gas bill is up. Here's why

toggle caption Jeff Brady/NPR

In the Philadelphia suburb of Wyncote, Pa., Michelle Lordi has taken notice of her higher gas bills.

"We had thousand-dollar bills this past winter," Lordi said outside her home recently, as construction crews replaced old gas lines in her neighborhood. Her bill combines gas and electric, but during the winter heating season, that's mostly gas.

Now Lordi is making the connection between her higher gas bill and the nearby construction. "It looks like they are tearing every single bit of infrastructure up here," Lordi says. "So, first of all, I know that's very expensive. There's crews and crews of people."

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The local utility, PECO (formerly the Philadelphia Electric Company), says it is spending about $1.8 billion over five years to upgrade its gas pipelines and other infrastructure. Because it's a monopoly utility, regulators will pass those costs on to ratepayers.

This construction and Lordi's higher bill are part of a trend across the United States. Even though natural gas prices are relatively low now, residential gas utility rates are nearing record highs. That's because customers are paying more for infrastructure, construction, utility costs and taxes than they are for the actual fuel.

The construction aims to improve pipeline safety after a deadly 2010