January 26, 2001
Heating bills pinch home owners in the pocketbook
By Carol Bogart
Staff Writer
Baby, it's been cold outside -- and some people with propane and natural gas heat are really feeling pinched in the pocketbook.
Rosemary and Bert Wahrer, newly married and supporting two homes, are both on fixed incomes. Rosemary, disabled with heart problems, is 53. Bert, 63, has mild emphysema.
While Bert, whose home is a modest 864 square feet, hasn't been hit too hard -- $43-a-month for natural gas last winter versus $47-a-month this winter on his budget plan -- Rosemary has taken an enormous hit.
Her country home is 1,865 square feet. Heating with propane, Rosemary has seen her monthly bill skyrocket from $200 a month last winter to $500 a month now. Propane, she says, was selling for $.79 a gallon before. This winter,she says, it's $1.80. "More than twice as much," Rosemary said. "Ouch. Especially when you've got two houses."
The Wahrers are trying to ready both houses for sale so as to buy one house to occupy together. They say running back and forth to doctors interferes with being able to get much done. Steep heating costs, Rosemary adds, aren't helping.
The problem apparently goes beyond supply and demand. According to an information sheet from the National Propane Gas Association, shortages are linked, in part, to how much propane oil refineries are burning to refine crude oil. "Propane," the Association said, "is a by-product of crude oil refining and natural gas processing.
"Some refiners who normally produce propane by refining crude oil are now using that propane to fuel their own refineries instead of selling it to retail distributors for traditional users such as homeowners and business.
"This is because the price of the natural gas they normally would use as a fuel has risen to over $9 per million BTUs, as much as 4 times its normal price." The Association says refinery use of propane is resulting in the removal of thousands of barrels per day from the market.
Industry representatives are even murmuring the word "allocation" -- the possibility of providing distributors with less product than requested.
Gary Veith, manager of Schilling Propane Service in Upper Sandusky, is a propane gas distributor. He sated, so far, he hasn't experienced a propane shortage even though the area has had "one of the coldest Decembers on record."
The Association said, "All energy consumers -- whether propane, natural gas, heating oil or electricity -- will experience higher energy bills this winter." It predicts a snowball effect as high costs of diesel for trucks and increased costs for coal boost electricity prices, and hikes in the petrochem market boost the price of plastic -- affecting everything from spatulas to children's toys.
Meantime, when hard-hit consumers can't pay doubled monthly bills, independent distributors may have to borrow money to stay in business. "This is ugly right now," Veith said. "I feel sorry for the consumer."
Consumers on limited incomes may qualify for help through HEAP, WSOS's Home Energy Assistance Program.
Wendy Corfman, WSOS's Emergency Services heat coordinator, said a family of four with a three-month gross income of $6,394 could qualify if the family has received a disconnect bill from the gas or electric company and has less than a 10-day supply of fuel oil, propane, coal or firewood.
Corfman said, "Propane is going up every two weeks." What was $1.29 a gallon last year is $2.29 a gallon this year.
She cites additional demand -- more new homes with propane or natural gas furnaces -- an extra-cold winter and no new wells drilled, partly because it's been unseasonably warm the last several years, for the insufficient inventory.
So far, she sated, WSOS hasn't experienced increased demand for its HEAP program. "Maybe," she said, "because people don't know about it or don't qualify."
Anyone in Seneca County interested in making an appointment to see whether they do qualify can call the Fostoria office, (419) 435-4357 or toll-free (888) 441-4327.
Columbia Gas of Ohio has just announced its response to Governor Bob Taft's challenge to Ohio utilities to come up with creative ways to help the state's working poor overwhelmed by this winter's high heating bills.
The company is dipping into corporate profits to fund $3.5 million in emergency assistance, say company spokespeople, for families who don't qualify for programs like that offered by WSOS.
Company spokesperson Gina Thompson blames the high prices today on low prices several years back that curtailed exploration and drilling. Also, she said, electric companies and homeowners are using more of a resource she calls "environmentally and economically friendly."
With prices up, the profit-incentive is resulting in increased drilling, Thompson says, to compensate for the problem of "not getting it out of the ground as quickly as we're using it."
She said, although there is "an abundant supply," the American Gas Association is predicting a 6-18 month lag time between the increased drilling -- and a decrease in natural gas prices.
Applications for help with this winter's bills through Columbia's emergency assistance fund will be available beginning Feb. 5 through the Salvation Army.