Another Four Hundred Dollars

About two-thirds of homes in the Midwest use natural gas for heating, and the price of that resource has gone up quite a bit. The Energy Information Administration estimates that it will cost the average household another $146 over last years' heating season prices, and this is $408 more than the average cost of the 2002-2003 cold months.

So what's another $400? Just skip a few dinners out, maybe miss an opera or a couple ball games.

Don't worry, be happy.

Well, I'm a worrier. My spouse says I should be on something. And she's probably not incorrect.

I could stop worrying. But worrisome issues would not go away. I just wouldn't care as much. I'd put the opera tickets on a charge card.

Weak production - although production increased by 0.5 percent in 2003, it was not sufficient to offset the 3 percent decline in production during 2002. The industry in 2003 drilled the second highest number of gas wells in a single year, however production has not increased proportionally.

(Snipped from the EIA report linked above.)

So they drilled more natural gas wells, but production has not increased proportionally. That is to say, production for each well is not the same. It is declining for some wells.

This is the time of year in which our home energy bills decline, because we don't need the air-conditioner during the cooler months. We are lucky, in that respect. But if you own a natural-gas-heated home in the Midwest, your luck is slowly running out. Sell and move to the Valley of the Sun. Everybody else is doing it.

Then I won't worry about you all so much.

Instead, I will worry about inflation. When the price of fuel goes up, so does the price of everything else.

Eventually this effect will make everything change. We ain't seen nuthin yet.

I should repeat that.