Rising natural gas costs in Southern California have many restaurants on the brink of raising costs of menu items or even shutting their doors.
The L.A. Times reported that Tre Dinh, the owner of Pho 87, a Vietnamese restaurant in the Chinatown section of Los Angeles, received an astronomical natural gas bill.
The restaurant’s signature soup requires 16-20 hours of simmering on a gas stove, but between November and January, the bill jumped from $800 to $8,000.
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Tre Dinh is not the only restaurant owner in California to see a big jump in the natural gas bill.
Some San Diego restaurant owners saw a 400% surge in January.
For instance, Rudford’s Restaurant owners Jeff and Nick Kacha received an $8,200 gas bill and told “Fox & Friends” in early February that they felt betrayed by politicians as they don’t represent the people in San Diego.
“It just seems like they’re throwing businesses under the bus … we bring in so much tax revenue and everything for the city of San Diego. And they’re here like stabbing us in the back almost with all these costs and allowing all these companies to do whatever they like. … It’s sad to see … the people are suffering,” Nick told Ashley Strohmier during the interview. “There’s just people that say they can’t afford their bills any longer,” he continued. These are the people that need it most, and … it just doesn’t seem like they’re representing any of us.”
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The Kachas said they can’t continue to raise prices of food until nobody shows up, adding that everyone is on a tight budget and that they were hoping for a little relief.
San Diego Gas & Electric announced in early February that prices of gas bills would decline by 68% for the month, giving some residents a sigh of relief.
Likewise, SoCalGas reported the same decrease of 68%, saying a…
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