Natural gas prices may see 58 percent leap this winter

[sabra]

http://www.zwire.com/site/printerFriendly.cfm?brd=2703&dept_id=555106&newsid=15042369

Natural gas prices may see 58 percent leap this winter
PHIL ROONEY , Staff Writer

If you're experiencing sticker shock at the gas pump this summer, just wait for your winter heating bill.

A 58 percent increase in natural gas prices is projected during the November through February winter season, according to a spokesman for MidAmerican Energy. Aquila wasn't projecting prices that far in advance, but spokesman Matt O'Reilly said August costs are about about 12 percent above last year.

Natural gas for the November through February period was trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange last week at $10.34 per mmbtu - the measurement unit used to purchase natural gas - compared to $6.53 last year, according to Matt Reinders, a spokesman for MidAmerican Energy. That's a 58 percent increase.

At the same time, September natural gas was trading at $9.59 per mmbtu, compared to $5.54 at the same time last year, Reinders said. That's a 73 percent increase for the shorter period.

"That's just a snapshot of one day," Reinders said. "It is still where we're at at this moment."

[havocmom]

1. 'Grandma Millie' best be knitting sweaters, shawls and stock up on K-Y

cuz the energy companies are gonna screw her again.

[madrchsod]

2. enron-enron-enron

the rotting corpse of enron is rising from the grave. guess what? if this happens the economy will collapse and the 2006 elections will be real interesting. iran better get ready for shock and awe

[Tyrone Slothrop]

31. NYC and San Francisco should probably be getting ready too

[kestrel91316]

49. And LA.

[phantom power]

3. Lots of electricity is generated by natural gas.

Our utility has raised rates two years in a row. Looks like they'll do it again next year too.

[barb162]

15. natural gas should not be wasted that way

[phantom power]

17. What do you think is the best way to waste it?

:-)

[barb162]

19. the best way to "waste it" is to reserve it for home heating as it is a

very clean fuel. When electric utilities are using it like crazy in the summer for peaker plants, it raises the price like hell of this scarce resource to consumers.

[phantom power]

21. We're all going to pay, one way or another.

Use it for home heating, and it just means we have to burn something else for electricity. That basically leaves us with leveling the Appalachians for more coal.

The only way out of this downward spiral is nuclear, and/or wind. Neither of those is going to be cheap, either. Amortized cost is low, but up-front cost will be trillions of dollars for deploying tera-watts of wind or nuclear capacity.

[reprobate]

60. There are some other alternatives than nuclear.

And you're right that wind is one. We happen to be the country that is stuch with a government that's locked into petroleum.

England is putting up a wind farm off their coast, IIRC, in the north sea. Ane its a big one, to deliver a good part of the energy needed for a large area. There's no reason we could not do the same.

Then there is harnessing tidal energy. The theory is well known, now it's a matter of engineering.

And don't forget thermal energy. there's plenty of that available if we would just decide to use it.

In fact, IMO, there's plenty of energy going to 'waste' that could be harnassed for our use. If we could just break this concentration on petroleum.

But that would require replacing our leadership with people who actually had the best interests of their constituents at heart, not the best interests of their corporate sponsors.

[TheFarseer]

4. Is there a shortage?

If I had to guess, I would guess this is fueled mostly by speculators.

[barb162]

14. I think natural gas is about as short as gasoline; I think they are not

finding new reserves

[wishlist]

5. Electric rates to rise too, Progress energy in N.C. wants 9% raise

You can't win, all fuel will be going up this winter I am afraid. Even wood will cost more to cut and haul.

http://www.wral.com/news/4799468/detail.html

[obxhead]

6. conversion of "oilsands" will make this increase

seem like pennies in the very near future as well.

[Strelnikov_]

13. "Using Cheap Natural Gas To Make Expensive Petroleum"

them tar sands are.

[Teaser]

7. shit.

I gotta get a fireplace.

[hatrack]

8. Good thing this won't show up in the "core" inflation rate!

Otherwise, things might start to look expensive! What a relief!! :eyes:

[Zynx]

9. Good lord. That's insane.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

10. Holy shit...

my house is almost all natural gas -- heating, water heater, stove, and dryer. The bill has been already going through the roof the past few years -- with serious conservation on my part.

I am fucked. :(

[Love Bug]

18. My house is almost all natural gas, too

I replaced my 40+ year-old furnace a year ago so even though prices went up last winter, I didn't feel it because I was using half the therms I did the winter before. Looks like I'm going to feel it this year, tho. I may have to start hanging up my clothes in the basement to save on dryer time. :-(

[Hell Hath No Fury]

26. I seriously...

don't know how much more conservation I can do. Thankfully, I live in a moderate climate (SF) but it can still get mighty cold. I already turn of the furnace at night and keep it at 63ish during the day. Sweaters and afgans are the norm in the winter at my house. I do short showers and run the dishwasher only when full (around once a week) and only do laundry once a week.

Short of stopping bathing altogether and wearing dirty clothes, I don't know what else I can do!

My Mom just got her latest credit card bill -- that new 4% minimum payment thing was refleected. Her minimum payment went up to $121! And that was just one card!

Between home heating costs(natural gas/heating oil), gas costs, food cost increases, and teh new credit card minimums, I fear many of our fellow Americans are going to be pushed over the edge financially.

I am already close. I can't imagine what the poor folks who are worse of than me or are on fixed incomes are going to be doing.

Fuck the bastards who are doing this to us!!! :mad:

[KayLaw]

28. God!

I was just thinking about the government urging the credit card companies to double the minimum payment just about the time the bankruptsy reform came about, and adjustable mortgage rates are increasing, and gasoline and all products shipped or produced with oil going up. . .It's going to be a terrible winter for most Americans.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

30. It is not going to be pretty...

that's for sure. It's a kind of "perfect storm" financially for folks.

I can image how shocking it is going to be for some who open their credit card bills and find their monthly minimums doubled! I have no doubt that there are many who have no idea that this is on the way.

The increase in food has also taken a bite out of my pocket -- to see cheese at almost $5 for a medium brick! Damn....

[Love Bug]

37. I do a lot of conservation, too, but can probably do more

Unlike you, I live in Minnesota, so heat is essential. It's going to be a rough winter here for some folks if the projections about the price of natural gas are correct.

[NYC]

44. I thought the increased minimum payment was supposed

to be on new purchases only. I thought the old purchases would continue at the old rate of repayment.

Did I misunderstand?

[Hell Hath No Fury]

61. The new 4% rule...

goes towards the entire balance not just the new purchases.

Pisser, huh? :mad:

[NYC]

63. Thanks. That makes it much worse.

Are all companies doing this? I read that some companies were doing it, but I don't remember reading all. I suppose if the first few get away with it, the rest will follow.

I think October 1st, the new bankruptcy rules go into effect.

[midnight armadillo]

59. Solar hot water & other ideas

If you have decent southern exposure on your house, you could do solar hot water heating. This is way cheaper than photovoltaics, and supposedly the cost savings typically pay for a 3-year loan to pay off the system. The drain-back systems are very reliable and simple.

You could also cut your energy bills with compact fluorescents, adding insulation to the house (esp. the attic - heat rises. use blown-in cellulose), sealing off little-used windows in winter, putting foam gaskets on all outlets & switches on exterior walls, using reflective/insulating window shades (closed at night & on north side, keep open on south side for winter heat in daytime).

All of this costs money and effort though. I am lucky to not pay heat for my apartment, but I still weatherstripped like crazy to try to cut down drafts last year just to try to be comfortable.

[MissB]

32. We did the same thing

We replaced our old oil furnace with a 90+% efficiency natural gas furnace last summer. Last winter, we didn't get a bill over $150 at the peak of cold weather. (Compared to the previous winter when we paid $1200 within 60 days to fill our oil tank several times - and this was keeping the thermostat at 68 degrees).

I think natural gas went up about 25% last year. This morning, the newspaper said the gas company is looking for increases of between 13 and 18 percent. They'll get it. We'll just reduce our heat a bit.

As far as the clothes drying is concerned- I use my dryer for just a few minutes to heat up the clothes which softens the fibers. Then I hang them to dry. We have a partially subterranean basement - unheated and uninsulated. In the summer time, the clothes dry in about a day (clothesline strung across the basement - clothes on hangers or on a wooden drying rack). In the winter, it may take two days to dry, or I take some of them upstairs and put them on the shower curtain rod.

But drying them for a few minutes first keeps them from getting stiff.

[kestrel91316]

52. I use distilled vinegar in the rinse as a softener, no dryer needed.

[kestrel91316]

51. We should ALL be hanging our clothes up to dry ...............

except when it's raining.

[kestrel91316]

50. Get an on-demand water heater and a wood stove.

[dchill]

11. GREAT!

I've been wondering what I can do to help our struggling energy industry during these trying times...

[Mari333]

12. people will die. people will freeze to death

Im serious. There are people all around me who heat with wood to supplement and can barely afford to eat. This will be their death knell, I cannot imagine how they will survive. The poor and elderly in rural areas..this will be it for them.

[alkaline9]

16. even worse...

...global warming will have adverse effects on the low temperatures in the winter months ... so get ready for year after year of colder weather.

[Mari333]

20. yes, and the price of everything will go up

because higher gas prices mean higher prices everywhere on everything. Bush and co have succeeded, as I knew they would, in destroying the usa.

[kestrel91316]

53. People will need to move in temporarily with family or neighbors ....

and pitch in for the utility bill. You could fit twenty or more in an average home if need be, just bring sleeping bags. It would get some through the worst cold spells.

Too bad nobody knows or talks to their neighbors anymore. They will be too afraid to do this.

[sintax]

22. 52% of electricity is generated from Natural gas

I can't remember if this was in NY state or US overall.

This is bad news. We must protest this. We are fighting for our lives.

[sintax]

23. Who uses natural gas?

3. Who Uses Natural Gas and How Much?

Just about everyone in the United States uses natural gas. Natural gas ranks number three in energy use, right after petroleum and coal. Twenty-three percent of the energy we use in the United States comes from natural gas.

Industry is the biggest consumer of natural gas, using it mainly to manufacture goods. Industry also uses natural gas as an ingredient in fertilizer, photographic film, ink, glue, paint, plastics, laundry detergent, and insect repellents. Synthetic rubber and man-made fibers like nylon also could not be made without the chemicals derived from natural gas.

Residences are people's homes. Residences are the second biggest users of natural gas. Six in ten homes use natural gas for heating. Many homes also use gas water heaters, stoves, and clothes dryers.

Natural gas is also used to make electricity. Just as the heat energy in coal is used to make electricity, so can the heat energy in natural gas. Many people in the energy industry believe natural gas will play a bigger role in electricity production as the demand for electricity increases in the future. Why? Because natural gas power plants are cheaper and cleaner than coal plants. Natural gas plants produce electricity about 20 percent more efficiently than new coal plants, and they produce it with far fewer air-polluting emissions.

http://lsa.colorado.edu/essence/texts/naturalgas.htm


recommend reading "High Noon (For Natural Gas)" by Julian Darley

The book is very timely considering that the prestigious Oil and Gas Journal has just this week come out with a forecast of global gas production peak for 2019. Julian Darley says that "if this were to prove correct, it has a number of astounding implications: it would mean that just as much of the new and enormously costly LNG and remote gas production infrastructure was coming into place, production would be going into decline. We can see what havoc oil peak is wreaking now, even though most of the world is in denial about it. The effects of gas peak would be much harder to deny, especially as industry warnings have already started. And of course by 2019 there would be absolutely no other hydrocarbon to turn to, since gas is the last great fossil fuel on the planet. However, this is not all. The Oil & Gas Journal study shows that only the Middle East has great potential for production growth, which makes nonsense of any claims of those trying to reduce Middle East energy dependence by shifting to natural gas. And, as if this were a sequel to the climate disaster movie 'The Day After Tomorrow,' there is an still more disastrous possibility: even the stark prediction of 2019 may be optimistic, since it relies on reported reserves in many remote places which have never been drilled, and there are credible suggestions that these reserves may be seriously over-estimated. All of this should be reason enough for a major and worldwide reassessment of energy policy, and should lead to a global halt in any further investment in costly and potentially dangerous LNG infrastructure."

http://www.energybulletin.net/1785.html

[Zenlitened]

35. It's used to make propane, too, if I remember correctly.

No one's immune from the effects of natural gas prices, as you've pointed out so well. :hi:

[barb162]

45. It makes me nervous just reading this

We are left with fewer and fewer alternatives. aren't we?

[demgrrrll]

24. Being cold is horrible. Our furnace went out and we went without heat

for 3 weeks during a bitter cold period to save around $2,000 on a super high efficiency furnace. It was worth it in the long run but damn, you could see your breath in the house and the space heaters did not help much at all. At least we could see the light at the end of the tunnel, I can't imagine not having any hope of having heat.
Just thinking of that time period makes me shiver.

[MissB]

33. Yeah, in both of our houses

(our previous one and our current one) we waited until the edge of summer/fall to have our new heating systems installed. Brrrrrrr..

I do know one woman on my block who says that she kept her house at 50 degrees last winter and just used a ceramic heater to keep warm. She moved it around from room to room- whichever room she was in at the time. I can't see that working for someone with kids (like me).

[barb162]

48. yeah, I agree

By the way, we have one of those super high efficiency furnaces too. I see no other choice but nuclear no matter how much people are afraid or hate them. People keep thinking that alternatives will do the whole job, like wind or solar power. But I suspect nuclear plants will have to be built.

[B3Nut]

25. Stock up on down...

...down sleeping bags and comforters are your friend. Coocoon up and turn that 'stat down...we'll be doing that this winter. Last winter was expensive enough...and now it's gonna get worse. :scared:

Todd in Beerbratistan :beer:

[MissB]

34. That and fleece blankets

and fleece pjs.

[kestrel91316]

57. Time for me to get those damned flannel sheets, no more procrastinating

[kestrel91316]

56. I like your sig, have family in East Beerbratistan (Whitefish Bay)

[Bo]

27. Bush paying back his base, thats all....

Record profits for all energy companies and a energy bill to boot.

[BootinUp]

29. Someone's head needs to roll. n/t

[meegbear]

36. I'm gonna freeze to death! Yeeeeah!

Thank you Mr. President.

[VegasWolf]

38. Yes, but gay stem cells can't get married! nt

[Dogmudgeon]

39. Say hello to your future

Heat will be expensive and rare -- probably within the next decade.

Gasoline will be expensive and previous -- almost certainly within the next decade.

Everything will cost a lot more money, including food -- and it's starting now.

Did you ever imagine you'd have to practice survivalism in your own home? That will be one consequence of our uncontrolled and reckless use of fuel. We've known about all this since the late 1960s and have done just about nothing. And now the crunch is here.

Read up on it now. It's the only way you'll be prepared for it. It may not make the whole problem go away, but it will allow you to survive it as a nuisance, rather than as a trauma.

--p!

[Indy Lurker]

40. Natural gas stores are up.

Compare to the last couple of years, the amount of natural gas in storage is rather high.

Right now, the price of natural gas futures (next 6 - 18 mos) continue to rise, and there isn't really any good reason. It seems to be following crude oil prices, which it really shouldn't. Look for the prices to actually be down a little this winter.

Come December, those holding futures will either have to take the natural gas, or sell with all the other speculators for a loss.

[sintax]

41. kick n/t

[VegasWolf]

42. Given the current rate of increase averaged over the last 12 months,

the price of gas will be $4.75 per gallon this time next year.

[Enraged_Ape]

43. Well, since I paid $300/mo for my heating last year...

I guess I have $480/mo to look forward to!! WOO-HOOO!!! Bankruptcy, here I come!! (Oh, that's right. I can't declare bankruptcy anymore!!)

I can't imagine even the most brain-damaged Freeper would sit still for this garbage.

And no, I don't believe for a second that this "energy shortage" is real. We are being taken to the cleaners by the biggest organized crime racket in the history of Planet Earth.

[sintax]

47. The energy shortage IS REAL

but it is not just a shortage-it's going, going, gone. never to return in the way we think of it. The sooner you see this and understand the ramifications the sooner you can make wise decisions to prepare. We are talking WHOLESALE changes.

We are also being taken by the biggest organized racket in history.

BTW when natural gas declines it comes crashing unlike oil which slips, sputters and heaves through its decline.

[OhioBlue]

46. If this proves to be true

I am sooo screwed. Soooo screwed. I'm still paying off my heating bills of last winter. We tried to keep it at around 60 degrees unless it got unbearable. Screwed. BTW - I'm in shock. I just asked my boyfriend if this happens, are we moving in with my Dad or his folks. There is just no way. No way we can pay the bills if this happens.

[earthmama]

54. Yep I am screwed too.

can barley make our bills now ... 200$ a month for a small place....

[kestrel91316]

58. Lots more extended families will be moving in together, and

I think the housing construction boom might have a teensy weensy thing called a bust.

But you all might want to invest in insulation stocks.

[Maggie_May]

55. Just great

and U.S speaker of the house Dennis Hastert says economy won't be a issue in the 2006 elections. I hope people get smart and vote these jerks out. The middle class is getting squeezed to death.

[fortyfeetunder]

62. Learn how to sew with Polarfleece

It's easy, doesn't unravel. You can have an entire wardrobe for indoors, socks, slippers, pants, etc. And it's super warm and toasty.

Malden Mills (Polartec mfr.) is going to have a good year for fabric sales.

Looks like this is a good time to take my scraps and make hats, etc. for folks who can't afford to buy fleecewear.