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January Natural Gas Bills To Double/Triple [1]
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Date: 2023-01-06
Cooking and Heating Get More Expensive
8:00 am today, Southern California Gas sent out the following Happy New Year message:
Dear Customer, There’s no easy way to put this: January bills are likely to be higher than usual. An unprecedented cold snap across the nation in part has caused natural gas market prices in the West to more than double between December and January – much higher than expected. As a result, SoCalGas residential customers can expect the typical January bill likely to be more than double the typical bill last January, assuming the same amount of natural gas is used.
So exactly what does this mean for consumers? Per information provided by SoCalGas to the LA Times:
A typical peak monthly bill of $65 from last winter will probably come in close to $160, SoCalGas said, a 146% increase. A $130 bill will be more like $315, up 142%.
LA Times Natural Gas Spikes
Per the SoCalGas website, their cost per therm in January 2022 was $.84, November 2023 was $.82, December 2023, $1.05, and January 2023, $3.45.
And this cost problem isn't going to be limited to just your gas bill. Southern California Edison produces 22% of their energy from burning natural gas, so these bills will also be going up.
This problem isn't just Southern California. Natural Gas prices do vary somewhat by region, but the price trend is the same.
The cause of this problem is multifold. First, the cold spell across the US has increased demand, and at the same time we are exporting LNG to help with world demand as Russia has been cutting supply to Western Europe.
The Europeans and British have been dealing with multifold increased in NG and electric rates for months and now it's hitting us. Thanks Vlad Putin.
What can we do? Grit our teeth and pay, but minor changes can help. Reducing the thermostat a couple degrees, wash clothes in cold water, reduce the temperature of the hot water heater, reduce or turn off heat when your not at home. But in the end, we'll be paying significantly more for energy for a while.
I have enough clothes, that dirty ones will pile in the garage until I see prices back to normal, and I won't be braising anything that needs to cook 3 plus hours in the gas oven. An elderly parent lives in my house, so I cannot cut temperatures.
In the long term, this is why we need to convert to renewables.
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[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/1/6/2145861/-January-Natural-Gas-Bills-To-Double-Triple
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