United Kingdom (IBwire.com - November 07, 2012) Public apathy, natural disasters and a poor harvest in both the US and Russia are to blame for the rise in energy bills according to Weekly Independent.com.

“A bad harvest will affect gas and oil (prices) because of the lack of suitable ingredients required for refinery purposes…it’s always worth shopping around.  Competition will always provoke people to undercut another company if it means they gain more custom”

Weekly Independent.com                     

Energy companies are often privately owned and the article contends that it is naïve of the public to assume that they can dictate what bills they can and cannot pay.  With barrel prices generally on the rise since 2007, only a recent decline has given any cause for consumers to be frustrated at the energy sector.  According to Weekly Independent however this does not explain why the public is so outraged considering the general apathetic attitude towards switching suppliers.

“The advice from experts and consumer groups is that we should keep switching to take advantage of the best deals, but only a minority of people do so.”

BBC Watchdog Consumer Advice

Independent energy and fuel suppliers seem perplexed as to why the customer is having such a negative reaction to any proposed increases and are trying to remind the public who has the power.

“Service is key to our business.  If we don’t provide the service our customers have paid for, then they are completely justified in switching suppliers.”

Karolina Wawrowski, Nationwide Fuels

Natural disaster including the recent hit of Hurricane Sandy in the US has meant that fuel prices are likely to wobble and fall slightly, but Weekly Independent does not believe that this is a permanent drop, but instead a temporary measure and in many cases reason for energy companies to raise prices higher due to increased safety, maintenance and security threats.  Energy companies strongly believe that the people have the power though and seem to be going out of their way to remind the public of this.