Posted on 11/02/2007 11:56:14 PM PDT by skully
NEW YORK (AP) — With his furnace sputtering its final gasps, Charles Comito decided it was time to trade in his heating oil system for natural gas this year. The switch cost $4,400, a price he says will be worthwhile in the chilly months ahead.
"It was for the convenience and cost," said Comito, a 71-year-old resident of Little Egg Harbor, N.J., who lives in a three-bedroom ranch-style home.
With oil topping $90 per barrel, some homeowners are weighing whether the price tag for switching to a natural gas furnace makes sense. The decision may depend on a variety of factors, including the availability of natural gas lines, an issue in the Northeast, where gas pipelines have historically been less common.
(Excerpt) Read more at ap.google.com ...
My natural gas bills have been pretty high for several years now.
I’m thinking prices are temporary till get involved with Iran...if that happens.
Your and my natural gas bills are high because we starting generating large parts of our electricity supply with it.
“because we starting generating large parts of our electricity supply with it.”
Which even a large part of imported oil goes for...
Can we build a Nuke Plant yet?
Can we build a Hydroelectic Dam yet?
Can drill in Anwar, or offshore, yet?
Can we build a Coal-fired plant yet?
Any chance at CUTTING energy taxes?
AT what price do we finally stand up and tell the Democrat Enviros that enough is enough?
There are large areas in the Northeast without natural gas lines? So people are forced to use electric ranges, clothes dryers, water heaters; and oil furnaces? I can't believe that.
Huh? Where do you live? Here in CT only the cities have gas pipes. Those of us in the rural areas only have oil or propane. Propane has gone up 150% in five years.
Few people are so stupid to pay thousands of dollars upfront to save a few dollars in the short term.
NG prices were stable at $2.50 for many years. As more and more was used for electricity, and other unrelated supply problems developed, a shortage began in late 2000. This led to a rapid price rise and created the electricity crisis in CA. Prices rose above $12.00 but slowly settled and stabilized at $3.50
Then Katrina interrupted the supply and prices spiked and still haven't fallen back to pre-Katrina prices. They probably never will. A world market for NG is being built and the US will begin importing large amounts.
No one can say with certainty what the prices will be after the NG imports begin but will probably be about what they are now. A world market will lead to more price stability.
Its true. The NE US resents TX, OK, and LA. so they have always looked for other energy sources. They use a lot of home heating oil.
The US doesn't import a lot of natural gas, but most of what is imported goes to the north east.
Like wise with crude oil and distillates. They use a lot from Venezuela. Heavy oil from there goes to the HOVENSA refinery in the Virgin Islands which is owned by Hess Oil and Venezuela then to the north east. Hess, based in New York, is one of the few oil companies not based in Houston.
AMEN!!!1 I am shocked at the lack of the price of energy being a campaign issue. Republicans should be hammering on this at every turn.
Here in Iowa every city has natural gas. Rural homes use propane. Nobody here that I know of uses home heating oil anymore because it is so uneconomical. I don’t understand why the NE has clung to home heating oil.
Relatively little oil goes to electrical power generation, a little over 1% of our petroleum use.
And looking from the electricity side, relatively little electrical power is generated from petroleum, some of that is "waste" products from refineries like coke and residual oil than cannot be made into gasoline or diesel.
U.S. Electric Power Industry Net Generation, 2006 
Is anyone aware that we are importing natural gas from China and Russia? We are sitting atop a trillion or so cubic feet of natural gas and I fear our feckless, left-learning government plans on chaining us to NG supplies from our enemies where we'll be left dangling as we are now with imported oil.
Eventually after the sheeple get accustomed to imported NG the central government will force capping our wells for the sake of the environment.
Not yet, we are not.
U.S. Natural Gas Imports by Country
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/ng/ng_move_impc_s1_m.htm
We will eventually get natural gas from Russia's Sakhalin Island. I am not aware of any LNG projects planed for export from China, do you have a link? China is building LNG terminals so they can import natural gas.
http://www.uofaweb.ualberta.ca/chinainstitute/nav03.cfm?nav03=62186&nav02=58139&nav01=57272
I do not believe we have an operation West Coast LNG import terminal yet.
North American LNG Import Terminals
http://intelligencepress.com/features/lng/
My solutions are as follows:
Nukes until the cows come home. 50 plants in 50 states in 5 years. the 1st GOP candidate that says that will catch a lot of ears.
WE need the NRC to cut the Bull$&!+ and utilize the shelved common plant design (yes it was being worked on by Combustion Engineering in the late 80's) and get-er-done.
Also get off the refinery bottleneck. If GM really wants a paradigm changer make the "Volt" run on LPG/CNG/Propane. There are systems that can be purchased and put in your home to fuel your car via the gas that is piped into your house.
As far as our refinery capacity, I think the Military moves of getting our Jets certified to run on JP fuels from coal using the Fischer-Tropsch process will get the coal-to-oil industry going, and potentially weening us from the Middle East.
Also note, the military is requiring all engines run on JP type fuels by 2010, for logistical reasons. We are talking APU's, UAV's all small stuff.
What they are doing with Mil-Spec may be coming up with a "One-Fuel" standard that will do more than any "Manhattan Project" or any bill the House or Senate may come up with. Think of it for a moment, if we could get all cars as Hybrid-Gaseous and all large trucks still on Diesel or CNG, refineries could almost stop gasoline production and concentrate on one fuel.
It would take some leadership and cojones from the oval office to move us in this direction.
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