Anybody worried about natural gas prices?

[trafick]

Hey All,

Right now around here nat gas is at a 7 year low going into the heating season. But I'm wondering what will happen to the price once "Cap and Trade" is passed. Seeing how nat gas is considered a fossil fuel and our primary bi-product is CO2, I'm wondering if all this environmental fervor will affect us gas stove users by way of HUGE price increases.

I reckon my choice will be to either move to China or India or pull the DV out of the fireplace, cut off the gas and go back to open fires.

 

[Corey]

You are on the right track. Cap and trade can only make utilities more expensive. I suppose it could make you a big pile of money if you are a carbon power broker, just like the fat cats at the top of the wall street trading pyramid. But for the rest of us average Joes, it's just another tax. About our only defense it to be as 'multi fuel' as possible. My old AC crapped out, so I installed a heat pump, have a gas furnace and the wood insert. So hopefully I can balance between wood, electricity and gas as cost and weather dictate.

 

[webbie]

First of all, natural gas does not create the same amount of pollutants that coal does.....1/2 the CO and vastly less of the other bad guys.
Nat Gas is NOT a big target of the environmental movement - in fact, it is trumpeted as the best bridge fuel at present.

As to "huge" increases due to regulations or cap and trade - that just isn't going to happen! It is purely speculation and the vast increases in the prices of other energy which made it spike last time. I am not saying that the price will not vary (like all other fuels), just that any swing due to cap and trade will be a tiny fraction of the any price movements.

I would also venture to say that, over time, nat gas will be an inexpensive fuel compared to many others.

I personally would not worry about either supply or price.

 

[JustWood]

There is a Butt Ton of capped holes in the ground just waiting to spew Natty Gas. Waiting on a price increase.

 

[jtp10181]

My utility usually pre-buys Nat Gas when prices are low and passes the savings on to us during the winter. I don't seem to pay much more for heating in the winter than I pay for cooling in the summer.

 

[Hogwildz]

They must be doing well. They are putting in a second 36" pipeline through my road that runs from the northeast, all the way to the gulf of Mexico.
And yet, I cannot get it at my house. They are also paying for lease rights to drill for gas deposits all over this part of the state. I didn't get that option either.
Can't wait till they get hsi thing run a few miles away, not used to hearing all the equipment in the mornings.

 

[R&D Guy]

No concern here. I think natural gas will continue to be a cheap North American home grown product for years to come.

 

[triptester]

If the push to stop building coal fired power plants continue the price of natural gas will increase drastically. A gas fired power plant can consume the same amount of nat gas in a year that a small city will use for heat in one season.

The majority of electric power is generated with coal at this time and the push is to replace them with gas fired plants. Consider that as power generating companies start competing with residencial consumers for nat gas the price of gas and electric will both sky rocket.

 

[trafick]

If the push to stop building coal fired power plants continue the price of natural gas will increase drastically.

That's my line of thinking. Nat gas itself is not going to be the problem, the problem is going to be the big push to move away from coal toward solar, nuclear, wind and nat gas. Right now the easiest and cheapest form of energy other than coal is nat gas. And if everybody starts to use it to generate electricity because it's cheap and availible and not coal, the cost will skyrocket.

Also there's T. Boone and his push to switch all cars to nat gas. I think once all this takes off, nat gas will go thru the roof.

 

[Later]

Cap and trade just may not make it - at least for a couple of years. T Boone wanted to run over-the-road trucks on NG, but that was when he thought he could get a new grid to his land in Texas.