Clark Howard's Tips
Natural gas oversupply means lower pricesFebruary 13, 2008
The story on energy has been ugly for a while now. Every extra dollar you spend at the pump is a dollar that you don't have for your own life, plus it goes to foreign enemies who may want to harm our country. But here's some good news: Natural gas, which is 97 percent domestically produced, is in oversupply.
Just under 6 in 10 people heat their homes with natural gas, including Clark. He also runs his car on compressed natural gas, which emits minimal pollution compared to electricity, oil and other types of power.
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CLARK'S TIP TOPICS
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Clark regularly tracks the price trends in oil and natural gas -- and the natural gas picture looks great. We had an affordable winter for heating with natural gas while people who heat their homes with oil have been hurting.
Don't expect natural gas prices to completely collapse; demand will continue because so many power providers can switch to burning gas to produce electricity. You will, however, see a lot of spin-off benefits for your wallet. Clark's home energy bills have been very reasonable. When he fills his car with natural gas, it's so much cheaper than gasoline because natural gas doesn't have to be refined like oil. With oil, there are so many markups along the way from the ground to the pump. The "crack spread" refers to the markup that refineries puts on their finished product. That's before they ship it to gas stations for another markup! With natural gas, it's like a direct sale from the ground into your tank.
