Natural Gas prices put citizens on the rocks

Customers are learning the basics of market economics with natural gas prices in California--when demand goes up and supplies go down, prices increase:

It may be warm outside this week, but that's done little to quell the chills local residents are getting from winter heating bills invading mailboxes this month.

The bills reflect both a drop in temperatures and soaring costs for natural gas that are up for a third straight year.

Southern California Gas Co. projects this year's winter heating bills could be 34 percent to 50 percent higher per month because of rising natural-gas prices and colder, rainy weather.

"Wow!" exclaimed Pat Ortega when she got her $96.50 gas bill earlier this month - up from $57 for the same month a year earlier and $22 a year before that.

"I could understand a little bit of a hike," said Ortega, 74, who lives in a one-bedroom duplex in Orange. "But this is ridiculous."

The gas utility projects that this year's typical bill will add up to $90 to $100 a month for a single-family household consuming about 75 therms in a winter billing period. (One therm equals about 100 cubic feet of gas.) That's up from $67 last year.

While the factors driving demand--weather conditions--are generally out of our control, Californians can do more to increase supplies, and building an import facility for liquefied natural gas might be a good start!