The Committee of Consumer Services is facing widespread outcry from hundreds of irate Utahns who believe it has abandoned its mission of standing up and fighting for the little guy and instead is bent on helping Questar Gas raise its rates.

"It is absolutely monstrous what is happening," said Delores Hart, a Questar customer who lives in Murray. "It is totally unreal that they would try to do this to the consumer. How are people supposed to pay their heating bills? I sure don't think they are fighting for us anymore."

Despite winning a judgment at the Utah Supreme Court three years ago that forced the utility to refund $29 million in previously collected natural gas processing charges, the committee in October abandoned its long-held stand that the company, and not its customers, should pay.

After several secret meetings with Questar, the committee decided consumers should give the gas company $19 million, or about 50 cents a month per household, over the next three years to help it remove troublesome carbon dioxide from its natural gas before it is piped to Utah homes. The committee also agreed Questar can request that the charge remain on each household bill past the three-year mark if it is deemed necessary.

When former committee director Roger Ball and well-known consumer advocate Claire Geddes asked to get involved and oppose the plan that is now before the Public Service Commission, the committee stood side by side with the utility in trying to silence the two dissenters.

And that is when Hart and nearly 400 other Utahns started flooding the PSC with individual petitions urging the state's top utility regulators to let Geddes and Ball represent their interests because the committee isn't doing so.

"It has happened before, but it's rare to see such a response from the public," PSC spokeswoman Julie Orchard said.

Questar customer Sandra L. Peck of Salt Lake City said she wants Ball and Geddes involved in the case because the public needs detailed answers from the committee about why it struck the deal with Questar. "And someone has to ask the questions," she said.

The committee expected the public outcry. "We know it is a sensitive issue," committee spokeswoman Christine Keyser said. She added that committee members remain satisfied the agreement is in the best interest of ratepayers.

Questar and the committee argue that Ball and Geddes, who both know the regulatory process well, should have gotten involved in the case far earlier and should not be asking to intervene now that they have struck their deal to let ratepayers pick up part of the processing tab.

In an answer filed with the PSC on Wednesday, Geddes and Ball maintain that argument is ironic, given that Questar was given a number of chances during the past seven years to make its case, that its customers should pick up the processing charges.

It is hard to believe, in light of this history, that a little more time cannot be spared, they told the PSC.

And the pair add that their request involves more than just themselves - it involves hundreds of other Questar customers who probably were counting on the committee to stick by its earlier stand. "In short, the committee's change of heart was unexpected, and hence, unlooked for, by any customer."

The PSC is expected to rule within the next 10 days on Ball and Geddes' request to get involved in the case.