Rising Natural Gas prices to hit heating-homeowners hard

Those who claimed California didn't need liquefied natural gas because existing supplies were sufficient in California are being proven wrong (shocker).

Hurricane Katrina disrupted natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico and worsened already tight supplies, according to the state's three major utilities.

Natural gas bills for home heating could soar by more than 40 percent -- the steepest increase since California's energy crisis in 2001-02 -- and cause economic hardship for consumers also facing record-high prices at the gasoline pump.

"It's going to make it an even tougher winter for a lot of households that don't have extra money," said Bob Finkelstein, who heads The Utility Reform Network in San Francisco. "Everyone is going to feel the burden."

Someone--maybe TURN--should consider what strategies they might employ to recover these costs from those who told us that existing supplies were sufficient.