Merry Christmas from the Shale Gas Revolution
CPI for natural gas in November was at the lowest level for that month since 2003.
1. "Idaho's Intermountain Gas Company filed a request Thursday with the Idaho Public Utilities Commission to lower natural gas rates for its customers. The company says it is filing the interim purchased gas adjustment because the price of natural gas continues to decrease."
2. "Residential customers of Tennessee's Piedmont Natural Gas should get a break in their bills starting Feb. 1 as natural gas costs continue to fall. That is expected to be followed the next month by an increase in service charges, if it’s approved by the Tennessee Regulatory Authority. Still, payments over a year should be about 7 percent less after both changes. The typical residential customer who spent $739 for natural gas this year would pay $685 after the adjustments, according to Piedmont."
3. "If you're a Connecticut Light & Power customer you got a little something extra in your stocking this holiday season, as the state's largest electrical company announced Thursday that most residential customers will see a 7.5 percent rate decease on their bills starting in January."
"The lower rates are primarily due to falling natural gas prices, which affects how much we pay for power," said Jim Muntz, CL&P's acting president. "This is very positive news not only for our residential customers, but for all of our Standard Service customers, who will see reductions in their rates."
4. "New Jersey's PSE&G has announced that it is lowering residential gas bills by an additional 4.6 percent, or nearly $8.53 per winter month for the typical residential customer.
The utility said the action represents the eighth decrease in a row for residential customers, for a total of more than $614, or 35 percent, in savings since January 2009. The price reduction takes effect Dec. 1.
PSE&G attributed the cost savings and rate reductions to lower market prices for natural gas, which are partially due to the availability of abundant and lower cost shale gas."
MP: The chart above displays the CPI component: "Utility (piped) gas service, U.S. city average," and shows that this measure of natural gas prices for residential customers this November are at the lowest level for that month since 2003. In contrast, over that same period, the overall CPI and the CPI for food have increased by 22%, and the CPI for gasoline has increased 120%.
3 Comments:
From the New Jersey PSE&G article:
"The eight decreases over three years, including the additional 4.6 percent now, will provide a much-needed positive impact for our customers in these challenging times,”
Eight rate decreases over three years is amazing and certainly unprecedented.
If you are a natural gas customer, then you can probably expect rate decreases, as previous higher priced supply contracts expire for utilities.
One of my gas providers just reduced rates 25% in October, as a result of new lower priced contracts.
President Obama should be thanking innovative natural gas producers, investors and suppliers for their work in helping the economy to real growth. They might have saved Obama his job, despite his efforts to the contrary.
The continuing decline in natural gas prices is causing many colleges to reconsider their alternative energy class offerings (mainly wind and solar power). Geothermal and energy auditing are still big hitters. Cost effectiveness of these types of programs in Michigan is part of my new job.
Merry Christmas to you all.
This is great news for consumers but will drive many of the gas players out of business very rapidly. Expect a the asset sales and new issues of debt and equity to continue as cash flows stay very negative.
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