In February of this year the Wall Street Journal reported that the average cost of delivered residential propane gas was up 28% from a year earlier. Residential heating oil was up 37% from a year earlier. While prices for natural gas usually go down in the summer, prices have continued to rise and are 50% higher since January according to one Ohio paper.
Prices for natural gas are being driven up by a lack of reserves, which are down 29% from the average. A colder than average winter on the East Coast last and the inability of production to keep up with demand are to blame.
In July National Fuel Gas Distribution Corp. in Ohio announced the company has raised its gas rates by 44 percent. Oregon’s three natural gas utilities told a state regulatory panel that residential prices could go up by 10 to 40 percent this winter.
Many power plants use natural gas to generate electricity which may result in additional rate hikes beyond the last round of rates hikes in July that averaged nearly 30% across the country.
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