I just locked into a 6 mo. fixed rate for natural gas that is

[napi21]

the same rate as I paid 4 years ago. .69 cents per therm. I heard yesterday that natural gas prices were going up so I locked my rate in today. I just thought you might want to check on yours before the companies go nuts again for the winter.

[DesertFlower]

1. thanks for the info. i have

an all electric house. my bill averages out to $296 a month.

[louis-t]

2. A lot of those programs are scams.

I remember years ago when dereg first hit, they were coming around trying to get us to sign up. I pulled out my gas bill while the guy was there. The rate they were charging was far higher than what I was paying. In the 2 years following, the price never went up as far as they were charging.

[napi21]

3. This one is no scam. I initiated the call to them to make the change.

After I heard the report about rates going up again for the winter, I checked my bill. I was currently paying .939/therm. When I checked their current rate plans and saw the rate for 6 mo. was .699 I called them.

[louis-t]

9. 6 months is safe amount of time to sign.

The ones that I turned down were for 2 or 3 years.

[Stevenmarc]

4. There was one company whos salespeople wore little yellow hard hats, I just laughed and told them..

that I was sorry but if they misplaced their drilling rig I hadn't seen it.

[AllentownJake]

5. PA is going to have a 40% electricity rate hike next year

[TexasObserver]

6. Prices were high four years ago following Katrina and Rita.

Those hurricanes and the damage they inflicted on refineries helped drive energy prices up four years ago.

How does your $.69 rate compare to your rates for 2007 or 2008?

Since business demand for energy is way down, that should mean lower rates the next year, unless there's a cold winter.

[napi21]

8. Maybe I missed the year when I was only paying .699. I

know the price went as high as 1.49/therm and the current rate was.939.

[Dogmudgeon]

7. We are in the beginning of a natural gas boom

The latest geological surveys of the huge Marcellus Shale gas deposits show that there is enough exploitable methane -- Natural Gas -- to raise the temperature of the atmosphere at least another degree Celsius. It's deep, and its matrix shale is radioactive, but new drilling technology puts it in reach.

Most people underestimate just how big -- and atmospherically dangerous -- this find is. The radioactivity is of no real concern; gas does not "carry" radiation. It's the carbon -- methane is CH4. In a twisted way, it means no more car insurance, penis pill, and vitamin ads with gratuitous pictures of windmills. But it also means that we'll be thinking "clean energy!" (it still has about 60% of the GHG potential of coal) and we'll stop considering the future. So we'll keep greenwashing ourselves into oblivion, going from one pipe dream to the next.

Oil production, on the other hand, has been on a plateau since late 2004. That guarantees price volatility.

But heating gas prices will be lower, and that will help people deal with the economy being otherwise lousy. It will give us a little more slack time to get our energy and environmental act together. The only concern you may have is finding that natural gas MAY be selling for less than $0.69/therm this winter.

--d!