How to shop for lower-priced natural gas
You’ve weatherized your home or apartment but your gas bills still seem high. What else can you do? Yes you can always put on an extra sweater and pair of socks and lower your thermostat a couple degrees. However, you can also shop for lower-priced natural gas…
For information on the status of natural gas residential choice programs in your State, check the EIA’s Status of Natural Gas Residential Choice Programs by State as of December 2007. Click on the link and then click on your state for details.
You may live in a state that has “unbundled” the natural gas commodity from the distribution service. In states with unbundled prices, the sale of the natural gas commodity is deregulated, which means that you can refer to a list of suplliers in your area and find the best deal. It just takes a couple phone calls to check on competitors’ rates, and then you can lock-in to a fixed rate for a year (e.g. $11.99 per thousand cubic feet or MCF of gas).
It’s easy to do. Your local distribution company (LDC) or public utility commission representatives can help you do it. You will save money and rest assured that you are getting the best deal in your area.
In states with complete unbundling, once you choose a gas supplier, your local distribution company will continue to provide local distribution services, as well as a unified billing service for you.
Natural Gas Should Remain Less Expensive than Fuel Oil
According to FERC’s Winter 2008/2009 Energy Market Assessment, while both oil and gas prices have fallen from their mid-year highs, natural gas prices remain well below heating oil prices on a per MMBtu basis.
Natural gas spot prices at their lowest levels this year
Natural Gas Weekly Update (EIA)
Spot natural gas prices moved lower this week at trading locations across the Lower 48 States, as fear of a slowing economy and turmoil on Wall Street affected the entire energy industry. Current instability in the banking sector is expected to have a variety of longer-term effects on the natural gas industry (including access to credit). This would considerably dampen demand for energy in all consuming sectors, but particularly affect demand in the industrial sector (where natural gas is the primary fuel for close to 40 percent of energy consumption). As concerns over the economy evolved this week, the price at the Henry Hub in Erath, Louisiana, fell to its lowest point since November 9, 2007, averaging $6.58 per MMBtu yesterday. On the week, the Henry Hub price was 83 cents per MMBtu lower, or about 11 percent less than on the previous Wednesday. On a regional basis, spot markets along the Gulf Coast in Louisiana and East Texas registered an average price decrease of $0.82 and $0.78 per MMBtu, respectively.
U.S. average price of regular gasoline drops below $3.50 for the first time since April 14.
This Week in Petroleum (EIA)
Gasoline and Diesel
The U.S. average price for regular gasoline plunged 14.8 cents to slip below $3.50 for the first time since April 14. Prices have now fallen for three weeks in a row, bringing the average to 348.4 cents per gallon, but are 71.4 cents above a year ago. The U.S. average diesel price dropped 8.4 cents to 387.5 cents per gallon. Prices settled below the $4 mark in all major regions of the country for the first time since March 10.
Read more
Tennessee Valley Authority electricity rates jump 20 percent
TVA electricity rates jump 20 percent today (Times Daily)
The wholesale price of electricity jumped 20 percent today across north Alabama and portions of six other states as the Tennessee Valley Authority tries to cope with the rapidly rising cost of coal and power that it purchases from other utilities…For the average resident of the Tennessee Valley, the increase will mean about $20 more per month on the electric bill.
TVA spokesman Gil Francis said the rate adjustment, the largest in 34 years for the utility, is needed to help TVA pay for the coal used to produce the bulk of its electricity and other expenses.
“Central Appalachian coal that we were buying for about $60 per ton in January was costing $140 per ton in August,” he said. “The cost of transporting that coal to our power plants has also increased. When we have to purchase power from other utilities to meet peak demands, that also costs us more than it did at the beginning of the year. Plus our hydroelectric generation remains about 50 percent of normal for the year, which forces us to burn more coal and purchase more power to meet our customers’ demands for electricity.”
Explaining TVA’s Rates (EnergyBiz Insider)
It’s a function of supply and demand. More people are moving into the region and consuming more energy. But the utility’s supply is stretched. It imports much of its coal from China, which is now a scarce resource. Price increases for fuel, including coal, natural gas and purchased power are driving TVA’s costs up by more than $2 billion in fiscal year 2009, compared to fiscal year 2008.
At the same time, TVA has been able to generate only about half as much inexpensive hydropower this year as it would generate in an average year. When TVA cannot generate that hydropower — about 1,000 megawatts — it must buy replacement power at market prices. Those power prices are much greater than hydropower costs and were even higher this summer, averaging 63 percent higher than last summer.
House of Representatives approves offshore-drilling bill…
What’s in the House offshore-drilling bill?
(Christian Science Monitor)
The House of Representatives approved a bill on Tuesday September 16th, 2008 that would relax the federal ban on offshore drilling and try to expand renewable energy.
The bill, which was adopted by a vote of 236 to 189, was backed by Democrats, who long fought the lifting of the 26-year ban but have been under intense political pressure to look as though they are taking steps to ease high gas prices. Republicans, whose vociferous calls for expanded offshore drilling have been met with widespread public approval, opposed the bill, claiming that it did not offer enough financial incentives to coastal states. On the final roll call, 221 Democrats and 15 Republicans voted for the bill; 176 Republicans and 13 Democrats voted against it.
The 290-page Comprehensive American Energy Security and Consumer Protection Act, as the bill is known, contains a number of important provisions. Here’s a succinct breakdown from Christian Science Monitor.
The Concept of Fuel Economy: Does it Lead to Good Decisions?
If you own two vehicles, a car and a SUV about the same age, then you will inevitably be faced with the decision of which car to replace first. If saving fuel is one of your motives, then you might be interested in this quick miles-per-gallon-math from Technology Review.
Say you’ve got two cars in your garage. One of them gets 34 miles per gallon; the other gets only 12. You drive both cars 10,000 miles in the course of a year.
Would you save more gas by a) trading in the 34-miles-per-gallon car for one that gets 50 miles per gallon, or by b) trading in the 12-miles-per-gallon car for one that gets 14 miles per gallon?
New experiments suggest that people tend to pick a). After all, a 16-miles-per-gallon improvement seems better than an improvement of just 2 miles per gallon.
The right answer is b).
If you start driving the 50-miles-per-gallon car instead of the 34-miles-per-gallon car, you’ll save 94.1 gallons of gas per year.
If you start driving the 14-miles-per-gallon car instead of the 12-miles-per-gallon car, you’ll save 119 gallons per year.
The math is simple arithmetic. Divide the total number of miles driven (10,000) by the miles per gallon to get the total gallons used to drive that distance. For 12 miles per gallon, the answer is 833. For 14 miles per gallon, it’s 714.
So what do you think — is “mpg” a good indicator of fuel economy?
Where Are Oil Prices Headed?
A recent presentation by EIA looks at oil prices and market conditions such as surplus capacity, increasing demand, and dollar depreciation, behind a six year 500% increase in oil prices. The forecast for ongoing demand growth is quite clear, while the forecast for oil production growth is mostly cloudy, and the only certainty about the price of oil is that it will change.
Diesel & Gasoline Prices Slip: First Time Since March 08
The average price of gasoline and diesel fuel in the U.S. has started to slip in recent weeks. Last week the average price of gasoline was $4.10 per gallon, and diesel fuel was $4.65 per gallon.
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NYMEX: Light, Sweet Crude Oil (CL)
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NYMEX: Natural Gas (NG)
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NYMEX: Heating Oil (HO)
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EIA: Retail Prices
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Bloomberg: Wind Energy Index
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MAC: Global Solar Energy Index