Back in May, Dallas and Atmos Energy were wrestling over the monopoly gas provider's latest rate-hike request. Atmos wanted $10.7 million, insisting it deserved the hike after pouring more than $80 million into local infrastructure upgrades during the previous 12 months. But City Manager T.C. Broadnax said the company would be willing to settle for $7.8 million, after striking a compromise. A 9-6 majority of the City Council said it could live with a $5 million bump.

Pleasant Grove's Rickey Callahan was among the council members all for meeting in the middle. Echoing the words of Atmos execs who always insist they're only asking for more money because they're doing so much to replace the aging lines beneath Dallas' crumbling streets, Callahan said, "I think the fundamental reason they're asking for increases is we asked them to keep the city safe."

Yes you did, councilman. And no they didn't.

Which is why 2,800 homes in northwest Dallas are without gas for the next couple of weeks, after 12-year-old Linda Rogers was killed when her home off Marsh Lane and Walnut Hill Road blew up. It's why streets and alleys all over that stretch of town are being ripped out as crews rush to replace 27 miles of antiquated steel lines planted in the 1940s and '50s. It's why Atmos trucks are sniffing and digging for gas leaks from the neighborhoods near Love Field all the way up to Belt Line Road.

And it's why a former Exxon pipeline engineer told WFAA-TV (Channel 8) Thursday night that the gas provider is "exposing the people in Dallas to a form of Russian roulette" — because it hasn't replaced some 400 miles of dangerously frangible cast-iron lines that should have been yanked out years ago, along with those steel lines.

Sleep tight, everybody!

The whole area's jumpy. But so far, Dallas City Hall's been calm about the calamity. And I get it. You don't shout at the surgeon when he's got his hand in your chest.

"Once we have this taken care of, then let's make sure we understand what's happening in our city with the soil condition and pipes and make sure we know what they've been doing and what their plan is," Mayor Mike Rawlings said Thursday. "It's something the City Council will want to hear about — and something I am sure Atmos will want to talk about."

We sure about that, Mr. Mayor? Because this is a company that can't even be bothered to tell people if they live among the steel pipes because "security concerns." Atmos won't release any maps. Instead, Atmos said though a spokesperson Friday that what my neighbors are experiencing is just "a series of events which are unprecedented in the history of Atmos Energy" that, according to their geological experts, "could not have been predicted or foreseen."

You know, that thing about the soil and the rain cracking those steel pipes. What the pipeline expert told Channel 8 is Atmos' "legal defense," not "their explanation."

A few council members told me this week they'll demand more from Atmos when they come before the council. But, let's be honest, besides giving the company a cathartic what-for, there's not much Dallas can do. That's the state's job — and if history's any indicator, there's not much the Railroad Commission will do.

This is the gang of three that gives Atmos what it wants whenever cities balk at their rates — and that nudged gas providers to replace their steel lines in 2011 but didn't really push too hard. And, according to the Sierra Club and other watchdog groups, takes money from the very companies it's supposed to regulate. Rawlings said he expects to talk with the RRC in coming months. Good luck with all that.

"I think it's a little naïve to think we can try to embarrass [Atmos] and that somehow things are going to change. Hopefully we're respectful, demanding and get the answers to the questions we want. But the state has got to step in," he said.

Atmos has pocketed more than $2.1 billion in profits in the last two decades, according to annual reports. The price of natural gas remains low, yet Dallas' rate-payers have seen their bills go up year after year; only a prolonged tussle with the council and the feds' tax cut spared citizens another hike in 2018.

Keep in mind, too, that hike covers only the work already done, the investment made.

"It's not a guarantee they will spend something next year," said Nick Fehrenbach, the city's manager of regulatory affairs and utility franchising.

Construction crews work on gas lines on El Centro Drive in northwest Dallas. (Jae S. Lee / Staff Photographer)

He said the company never tells the city where it's replacing those lines. Or why. Or when. City officials say the closest they come to knowing what Atmos is up to is when it talks to the Public Works Department about needing to cut open a street — and even then, it's "that's an engineer-to-engineer conversation," Fehrenbach said Thursday.

Atmos' email Friday morning said, "We do provide the city detailed information regarding our investments in the safety and reliability of our system." But city officials said this week that at best, Atmos tells the city where it's done work only in general terms — like, say, "Casa Linda" or "Midway Hollow."

I asked Atmos if it's going to come back and ask for more money from rate-payers this year. The response:

"Our focus remains on the issue at hand, restoring natural gas service to Northwest Dallas," said the statement. "It's too early to determine and speculate the impact this outage will have on our rates."

History says that's a yes.