Your rates WILL go up. Count on it. Coal fired, nuclear, diesel or natural gas, whatever generates your juice, it's gonna jump.
Part of the problem is due to new EPA regs requiring smaller plants using diesel fired generators to either update the exhaust with cataltic converters, or shut down permanently. The 4 Fairbanks Morse engines we have would require an investment of over $1 million to be compliant. Not many bergs of 1100 people can afford to do that. However, there are some loopholes and some back door finangling that can either allow these plants to run in emergency situations or figure out a way (grants, matching funds, etc.) to pay for the updates.
The only gas appliance we have is a gas cooktop. (We have an electric heatpump for heat, but below 20 degrees it switches to gas power) A typical month we actually burn less than $2 of gas, but add in all the other charges, (franchise, distribution, tax, and assorted other BS) and the bill comes to around $17-$18/month. THANKS, SourceGas! SourGas also charged me over $1500 to run the new gas line in to where we moved the house, and they wanted to charge me for them cutting the phone lines that connected the south half of town! THAT failed to materialize.
If you're on the grid, you're screwed.