"I think it is like the fox guarding the chickens," Klein said. "I don't want to see our gas rates go up anymore. There will be a ripple effect from this increase. As Utahns we are really fortunate to have someone like Roger and Claire represent us as consumers."

The issue earlier this month led to a yelling match between Geddes and consumer committee chairman Dee Jay Hammon, who said Ball and Geddes were on a public relations campaign to malign the committee by spreading "disinformation."

"Frankly, disingenuous comments and factually wrong comments they've made throws all kind of discredit upon them," Hammon said. "I don't believe anything they say."

Hammon charges that Ball dragged his feet for a year in hiring a technical consultant on the gas processing issue. After Ball was fired, Hammon said, a technical consultant was hired within weeks.

"There is nothing that I have done in five years on this committee that I apologize for," Hammon said. "Clearly there is a safety issue, and it was held in abeyance for all this time because we did not have an expert witness."

Chad Jones, a spokesman for Questar, said of the nearly 400 citizen petitions filed earlier this month, about half cannot be identified as Questar customers.

"That's not to say they aren't spouses of customers," Jones said. "We don't know who they are."

Under Ball's direction as executive director, the consumer committee fought the processing costs, alleging Questar created its own problems by allowing so-called coal-seam gas into its pipeline system.

In a filing with the PSC, Ball's attorney, Janet Jenson, said the committee's opposition to cost recovery for gas processing has been "steadfast for at least seven years."

"As early as 1992, Questar may have been alerted to the need to solve the gas/safety issue, which it now presses upon the commission," Jenson's filing said. "Questar nevertheless sat on its hands until 1997 and brought the matter to the attention of regulators for the first time in January 1998."

After the processing plant was completed, Questar passed $25 million in costs on to customers from 1999 to 2004.

But in 2003, the Utah Supreme Court ruled that the PSC had "erred" in passing the costs on to customers "by failing to hold Questar Gas to its burden of showing that the increase was just and reasonable."

That decision ultimately resulted in the PSC ordering a $29 million refund to customers — which included $4 million in accumulated interest — amounting to about $37 for the typical customer.

The new agreement allows Questar to capture ongoing costs associated with the processing plant after Jan. 31, 2005, until 2008, a target year in which Questar Gas hopes enough of its Utah customers will have their furnaces adjusted to burn new composition gas supplies so the plant can be shut down.

The Utah Public Service Commission must still approve the deal.

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E-mail: danderton@desnews.com