Natural Gas Sets Another Record

(UPI via COMTEX) ^ | September 29th, 2005

[Danette]

bumping for more comments

[VeniVidiVici]

Folks that heat with electricity may want to check and see if their utility has a billing/usage feature that's called Time of Use.

In a nutshell, any electricity I use during what I call primetime, currently 12pm - 9pm for my utility, is charged at double the normal rate. Right now normal being around .08kwh so primetime usage is charged at around .16kwh.

Now, the better part of this is lowtime usage. Non-primetime usage during the week, and all day weekends and holidays, is charged at half the normal rate, or about .04kwh.

This works well for us and our lifestyle and has been saving us between 75.00 - 100.00 a month during the summer months since 1996.

[The Red Zone]

3 dog night = 9 cat night

[SauronOfMordor]

Here in Pennsylvania we get 36% of our power from nuke. We need to build more nukes

[Smokin' Joe]

We need a balanced approach. More nukes, more refineries, more domestic oil and gas drilling, more infrastructure, and get back to utilizing coal for electrical generation as well.

Basically more of everything but the kind of ridiculous regulations that have led us down the merry path to 'not enough'.

One caveat, however: That will not come cheaply. Everything else has gone up significantly in price but energy in the last 25 years, and the energy industry is playing catch-up. Instead of being thankful that they have had it cheap for as long as they have, people are squealing like stuck pigs.

[tcostell]

OK ... how did they do at your place of employment last year? (and where should I send your share of the bill? Certified check only please)

[NeoCaveman]

Another question. How soon after natural gas prices take a major upswing, do you guys raise your prices since your paying more at the wholesale level?

We submit a rate change to the state quarterly. A component of the rate is a catch-up to make up for price changes during the quarter. So price increases and decreases do get to the consumer at a slower rate than on the wholeslae market.

Do you know if there are any new models of natural burners which would heat as well, but consume less?

I don't know. I'm fairly new to the industry. ,

[M. Espinola]

Thanks for that info.

As I post this Natural Gas for the November contract is @$13.900 down -0.296.

It's profit taking Friday. All the traded energies are down. November Crude is off $1.09 @$65.70. In relation to the end of 2003 oil & natural gas prices have more than doubled.

Have a good weekend!

[SauronOfMordor]

I agree with you on coal. PA Gov Rendell was just on CNBC talking about a coal-to-diesel plant PA is in the process of setting up, which will also produce electricity as part of the process

Another thing that's really needed is a major increase in efficiency of long-distance power transmission. That way we would be more able to build plants far enough away that people would complain less about having them in their back yards

[a4realguy]

My natural gas price per unit was moved from .95 to 1.55. My gas company can raise the rate each quarter. I think a price increase of this amount is obscene, so I decided to do something about it. I went out a purchased a couple of electric baseboard heaters for my condo. To date I have not used my gas furnace. I called in my estimated reading to the gas company this month. I told the lady the reading and I heard a dead silence at the end of the line. Before she could say anything, I said to her, I know your thinking this reading must be wrong as the usage is low. I explained to her that I have not turned on my furnace yet because i am PROTESTING the increase in the rates I am being charged. So, instead of getting a bill for 122.00 this month, shes changing it to 28.00. By the way, my electric bill this month was lower than the previous month. It looks like the electric heaters are using less than my air conditioner. The weather has not been cold yet, so I have no idea how long I can use the heaters. If a huge number of people would band together to protest these increases in the manner stated above, perhaps the gas company would think twice about jumping the rates. AS the saying goes, UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL.

[mysterio]

I switched to electric space heaters and am toughing it out. My heaters don't use as much as my air conditioning yet. I can keep my bedroom really warm, but the rest of the house is frigid. Haven't turned on the furnace yet, and I'm going to try not to. I live in the midwest, and our electricity is coal. Also, I lost 94 pounds this year, so I am feeling the chill a bit more this year. But I don't care. I don't want to send any more $250 dollar checks to Vectren. I'm doing my part to cut demand. I like and believe in capitalism, so I don't want government controls. But I'll tell you, these insanely high energy prices are making me furious. So I'll do what I can through the market.