re: Natural Gas

I know I read a couple years ago where Simmons was concerned about how many power plants were switching to Natural Gas (at least here in Texas and nearby).  It's cleaner than coal, sure, but then with declining production you never have a chance to refill the stocks during the summer since electricity demand goes way up.

My gas bill this month (we use it for hot water, cooking, and heat): $2.00 for gas, $9.00 "customer charge", and $18.00 "gas cost adjustment".  And this is a month where we don't really use any gas (I too have a drafty older house but fortunately moderate winters)

2.00 for gas? Wow. Even in the summer we spend more on hot water and cooking (gas range) alone...

The west coast of Canada is fairly temperate - not too cold in the winter but does get some snow and below zero weather. Damp.  Heating is unavoidable.

Cost of gas will show up in vegetable prices in the winter, at least for "hothouse" produced goods (we have a lot of tomatoe and cucumber grown under glass... they are going to be pretty pricy, as will food shipped up over the winter.