Smiles are on the faces of natural gas consumers, as historic savings grow to gargantuan levels. In 2008, the annual residential gas bill in many parts of the Commonwealth was approaching $2,000. Today, after the shale gas boom smashed prices, the average annual bill nears $1,000.
And the rate cuts keep on coming.
Serving the biggest geographic area of any gas utility in Pennsylvania, UGI is implementing yet another gas rate cut, this one being 4.3%. www.readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=386939. UGI rate cuts cumulatively amount to 40%, saving an average residential consumer about $650 per year just in a lower gas bill. The average UGI monthly bill is now down to $86.58 from about $140, in parts of its large service territory.
For many consumers, annual savings are a cool $1,000 for just the natural gas bill.
I say "$1,000 for just the natural gas bill," because lower natural gas prices have yielded lower electricity prices too, since natural gas is used to make electricity and plays a key role in pricing wholesale electricity power production. A typical residential electricity consumer in Pennsylvania and many other places has seen savings of about 5 cents per kilowatt-hour or another $450.
Compared to prices in 2008 for gas and electricity, the shale gas boom has delivered total annual savings to homes heating with gas and using electricity of about $1,450. Truly extraordinary and a real stimulus for the economy.
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