Energy Department Says Natural Gas Prices Could Skyrocket This Fall

[NNN0LHI]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBP9HLYCDE.html



WASHINGTON (AP) - Natural gas prices could increase as much as 71 percent in part of the United States this fall, raising the prospect of higher home heating costs this winter, the Energy Department reports.

The department's statistical agency, the Energy Information Administration, reported Wednesday that price hikes will depend on how quickly oil rigs and Gulf coast refineries damaged by Hurricane Katrina can be repaired.

In its report, the agency said natural gas prices for the Midwest will increase as much as 71 percent, while heating oil prices in the Northeast could rise 31 percent. Electricity prices in the South could jump 17 percent.

But barring an unusually slow pace of repairs, the agency said domestic oil production should return to just under 5.4 million barrels a day in November, the level it was in August before Katrina disrupted most Gulf production and knocked out 10 refineries.

[shoelace414]

1. Telling people price will rise will make

prices rise.. if nothing else.. or should I say.. because then energy companies can make obscene profits.

WE NEED A CONGRESS THAT WILL INVESTIGATE THIS

[BrainRants]

2. There's a serious disconnect here...

"price hikes will depend on how quickly oil rigs and Gulf coast refineries damaged by Hurricane Katrina can be repaired."

and...

"domestic oil production should return to just under 5.4 million barrels a day in November, the level it was in August before Katrina"

If production will return to pre-Katrina levels by November, BEFORE the heating season, why the 71% increase?

[Skwmom]

3. Before Katrina, wasn't it already reported that prices would skyrocket?

I can't remember the percentage increase but I do believe it was significant.

[mbperrin]

4. COULD rise???????????????????????

AHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

(wipes tears from eyes)

You mean WILL rise, of course! And you surely don't think a measly 71% will be the target do ya? After all, if people will take $3+ gas in the shorts for the convenience of extra driving, what will they pay to stay ALIVE in the winter?


Whooooo, COULD, boy oh boy.....

[acmejack]

5. COULD rise?

Try will rise. The opportunity for price gouging and obscene profits knocks. Can't miss out on free enterprise.

Can't afford it? Well, it's your own fault for being lazy! Why else wouldn't you have enough money to deal with it?

[greekspeak]

6. Part of the grand plan to reinstate feudalism

Every year this happens. Every year more and more poor people suffer because of it. Let them freeze. Let them drown. Let them starve. Let them eat cake. The RW answer to the quandry is that poor people are lazy. Of course, many MANY of these people that die needlessly each year are people who worked feverishly their entire lives, at thankless, dead end jobs, only to be forced into retirement. Others are injured on the job and cannot work any longer. Are the poor supposed to shit money? After we are all entrepreneurs, who is to pick up the garbage? Who is going to bus the tables? Who is going to do all the support jobs we need done? Somebody has to. Why, the people who the RW claim need to pull themselves up by the bootstraps. Puke logic is one big flaw.

[Coyote_Bandit]

7. I called and locked in my natural gas prices

Last year I locked in at $7.15 per decatherm (Nov '04 to Nov '05). The day Katrina made landfall I called and locked in my prices beginning in Nov '05 at $8.393 per decatherm. That is about an 18% increase over last year.

[NYC]

8. How many years ago were they talking people into converting

from home heating oil to natural gas because it was so much cheaper?

[rooboy]

9. ...and Brit Hume says "time to buy!!!" n/t

[SillyGoose]

10. Get ready for the next wave of deaths when the cold weather sets in.

People are going to freeze because they can't afford heating oil. To add insult to injury, the federal budget cut funds to the home heating assistance program.

She and other Missourians who depend on home-heating aid may have fewer resources to draw from next winter because base funding for the country's biggest energy assistance program would be cut by $85 million, or 4.4 percent, under President George W. Bush's proposed budget for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. Missouri would see funding trimmed by $1.9 million; Illinois would get $4.9 million less. The amount of emergency aid available nationwide also would be reduced by a third, to $200 million from $297 million.

.....

http://www.aiada.org/article.asp?id=34085

[B3Nut]

11. And oil production has what exactly to do with...

...natural gas? What in tarnation is going on here?

Todd in Beerbratistan

[FreeStateDemocrat]

12. Exactly. What it the reason other than GREED & they aren't regulated now?

[lateo]

13. And they probably will if Congress doesn't act.

But the fuckers won't.

[Just Me]

14. Energy Dept is cooperating with energy industry to exploit,...

,...the American people. It's sick!!!!

[sabra]

15. US economy to face high winter energy costs-Bodman

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N08658696.htm

US economy to face high winter energy costs-Bodman


WASHINGTON, Sept 8 (Reuters) - The U.S. economy will face a tough winter due to high energy prices caused partly by a disruption in oil and natural gas supplies from Hurricane Katrina, U.S. Energy Secretary Sam Bodman warned Thursday.

"There is no doubt that this is going to be a very tough winter season for the American economy (and) for American homeowners," Bodman said in an interview on the Fox news channel.

The Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday Americans who warm their homes with natural gas could see their fuel costs jump by as much as 71 percent this winter in some parts of the country.

Residential heating bills for heating oil will increase by 31 percent, and electricity users will see their costs rise by 17 percent, the Energy Department's analytical arm said in its latest monthly energy forecast.

[OKthatsIT]

16. Children and Elderly will freeze, suffacate or die of fire

Space heaters, gas stoves, burning barrels of trash...or nothing at all.

[genieroze]

17. I'm going to be burning a whole bunch of wood this winter.