The Peak Oil Crisis: On Keeping Warm

If you heat with natural gas, you must have noticed the price has been going up lately. Well, I have some bad news for you — this is only the beginning. For the 62 million households heating with natural gas in the United States , the cost of home heating has doubled in the last few years and there is no end in sight.

Unlike the situation with oil and oil products, only a minimal amount of natural gas
There are some bright spots. There is talk of a pipeline to Alaska and more LNG compression plants are being built overseas, but these will take years to complete and will only ease the pain a bit, not solve the coming supply crunch. Although we continue to find new pockets of natural gas in the US , those that are being found are smaller and much more expensive to drill. The bottom line is that US natural gas consumption will drop one way or another. We will have rationing by price and there is little anybody can do about it.

Of the 21 trillion cubic feet of natural gas we consume each year, about 4.8 trillion goes to residences, 3 trillion goes to commercial buildings, 7.3 trillion is used to make stuff, and 5.3 trillion goes to generate electricity.

Falls Church News-Press