Posted on 09/08/2005 3:30:52 PM PDT by Crackingham
You're right. I know for a fact that most wells in West Texas are choked back right now. The problem is not only environmental restrictions and capacity at the Gas-cleanup plants, but also the damage to the pipelines.
It makes sense to me that the price would drop because you won't have as much use, but it's not.
Their was an enormous increase in the number of Natural-gas fired turbines for power in the last 7 years.
One of the problems was that building permits were not allowed for new SRU's (Sulfur Recovery Units), Compressor stations, and pipelines. This created a government forced shortage of natural gas. It is beginning to catch up, but the EPA is adding greater strictions all the time.
We don't have gas at all and no HVAC...(our house is uber-rustic)... ;-)
I like the cold but the wife and kids do not. Electric heaters cost WAY too much so I invested in a good wood burning stove that sits on the hearth and exhausts through the firepalce chimney. Two cords of wood for $300.00 (wood is expensive here) lasts all winter. Super efficient heat AND the wood lasts forever... WAY longer than a fireplace, it'll burn all night.
Keeps the kids rooms comfy enough and the den downright toasty.
Softening us up for the next round of "Let's Make an Energy Deal."
It sure does :) We got a high efficiency furnace a few years back and it's cut our nat gas consumption almost in half.
It means build more nukes, yes. Hopefully we can get this going, bigtime.
Why am I paying all this tax money every paycheck then to fund things like the Fed Energy Assistance programs?
Got to love Texans.
Well, a few months ago, we just had several very large trees taken down on our property, and they have been sitting around, in a huge stack, seasoning for use...our fireplace will get more use than usual, as I now see....I hate to pay huge gas heating bills, so more frequent use of the fireplace, wearing long johns, and piling up with lots of cozy blankets at night will be the routine here...
Tho, luckily I live in Western Washington, and our climate is a temperate one, even in the winter months...we dont get the sub zero temps that we used to live through when we lived in Chicago years ago...so we will suffer less than people in parts of the country that get freezing temps in the winter...
If you have a natural gas or oil furnace ...and a whole house central A/C unit that is already four or five years old... check out replacing it with a air-to-air heat pump. Furnace stays off during much of the heating season.
Here in Pittsburgh the payout for the incremental cost of a heat pump over a central A/C unit was less than a year based on $10 natural gas and 6-cent power!
I'm in an apartment, so I'm stuck with what I got. Everything is electric, it's just that our electricity is mostly LNG here.
Prices are at record levels now and Autumn has not even begun. I am not sure what homeowners in the Northeast corridor are going to do if confronted with a bitter cold, upcoming winter.
Today the U.S. has more than 280,000 miles of pipeline, serving about 60 million consumers, according to the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America.
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