# If the alternative weren't freezing....

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-alternative-werent-freezing/248215>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [June 2, 2004, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-alternative-werent-freezing/248215 "2004-06-02T05:26:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2004, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-alternative-werent-freezing/248215/1 "2004-06-02T05:26:28Z")

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We live in northern New England. This means our winters are long and very cold.  
We heat with natural gas. To somewhat cushion the horror, we are on a ‘balanced billing’ system, that is, we are to pay the same amount each month, Winte or Summer, what the gas company predicts is 1/12 of what will use for the year.

In January our balanced bill rate was $137. In March it went up to $181. For June the monthly rate has just gone to $267. That is an increase of $130 in 5 months. If my feeble math skills aren’t completely off, that is an annual increase rate of \*\* 228% \*\*  
What the hell??? Are they blaming that on the way in Iraq, too? But isn’t natural gas an entirely domestic commodity??

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**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2004, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-the-alternative-werent-freezing/248215/2 "2004-06-02T10:55:47Z")

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Here’s some poop on that.

[http://www.naturalgas.org/overview/resources.asp](http://www.naturalgas.org/overview/resources.asp)