Virginia Natural Gas bills to shoot up by 35 percent

Look at the price of oil in gold. 30's, 70's, today. Maybe the US dollar just isn't worth much.

To blame the dems for the increase in gas prices is foolish. Fine, the dems took control in '06 (although I wouldn't consider the election a "hostile takeover"), the majority is razor-thin, and is not enough to garner the votes to enact many of the policies they proposed. Funny how I don't see reports blaming higher oil prices on dems, but on "supply and demand", international fears and pressures, weakened dollar, etc. To blame the democrats for the increased price of oil and gas is akin to putting one's head in the sand. And to blame them for mismanagement is laughable, given the government's response to Katrina, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Those situations were handled so well. Oh, and the economy, which the republicans patted themselves on the back for, since house ownership was on an unprecedented rise (remember the interviews) only to have the rug pulled from under it because of poor lending practices.

AM81430, I believe that the point that DAPARM was trying to make is that since the dems have wrestled control of our governments from the repubs fuel prices have steadily increased. Yes, the price was $2.19 in January 2006 when they took power. The promise from those dems was that they would ensure they would control the oil prices. They sure have controlled the prices…right into their own wallets while we, the hard working Americans are getting blistered by the rising costs. Both the dems and the repubs are responsible. But I hold the dems far more accountable because of their foolish mismanaging ways. The dems USED to be the party looking out for the little guy. That party is long gone. All they want now is the absolute power and they are choking that power out of us with oil and natural gas.
Facts are facts and you can't dispute them when you see how this economy has turned since the Dem hostile take over in 2006.

So if this is all the fault of speculators then logic says their game will eventually run out and they will have to move on to another market.

So which market will be next to skyrocket? Will it be staples (food). I'm sorry I don't buy all the talk of speculators as the cause of these astronomical prices. Just like I don't believe Big Oil is using their windfall profits for new technology. It really looks like a redistribution of wealth... again.

I don't know where you get your figures from, but gas was about $3/gal in 2006, not $2.19. It might have started at $2.19 in January, but by the summer, gas was priced at a national average of about $3/gal.

that speculation is to blame as well. I read a report that Morgan Stanley is one of the biggest owners of natural gas in the North East. I can't remember where I heard that, but I will try to find it.

Our ability to store natural gas is very limited. It is mostly used as it is produced. Storing natural gas requires compressing it, or even liquefication, which is expensive.

However, it is safe to say that it would be cheaper here if it were being piped in from off the Virginia shore than being brought in by pipeline from hundreds of miles away.

If you want to bring the price down, then drill here.

The rep from VNG in one paragraph says about the natural gas supplies "less is being stored this year"
Then she goes on to say "It doesn't seem to be a supply issue"

I'm not an expert, but please explain how less supply, is not a supply issue in the cost.

Wow...just wow. Do you people really believe all that silly conspiracy theory crap?

Submitted by fast500 on Tue, 06/24/2008 at 10:24 pm.
This is the bottom line folks. I'm waiting to hear someone say this isn't true. What fuel and natural gas shotage? It's long but well worth it!! This is a scam to soak the heck out of America...demand answers from our leaders.

Watch and wait to be amazed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbakN7SLdbk

PaulM, to be fair the tech bubble started while Clinton is in office. The rich are looking for ways to make lots of money while inflation is killing the savings of the working class (those that have it). Any bailout of housing from the gov't isn't a bailout of the working class, it's a move to bail out the banks that ignored the fundamentals of lending.

Another good reason to spend the extra money on a dual fuel gas/electric furnace. Use the heat pump most of the time and then fire up the gas for the few times it gets really cold. I've seen a number of gas furnaces getting replaced around the neighborhood.

Rock boy, the Dems have been in charge of Congress since 2006. D.E., who wants to give stuff away for free outside of our current welfare program. Talk about needing to do research. In just one year. Remember the election in 2006? Thought you might like to read the following: A little over one year ago: 1) Consumer confidence stood at a 2 1/2 year high; 2) Regular gasoline sold for $2.19 a gallon; 3) The unemployment rate was 4.5%. Since voting in a Democratic Congress in 2006 we have seen: 1) Consumer confidence plummet; 2) The cost of regular gasoline soar to over $3.50 a gallon; 3) Unemployment is up to 5% (a 10% increase); 4) American households have seen $2.3 trillion in equity value evaporate (stock and mutual fund losses); 5) Americans have seen their home equity drop by $1.2 trillion dollars; 6) 1% of American homes are in foreclosure. America voted for change in 2006, and we got it! Remember its Congress that makes law not the President. He has to work with what's handed to him.

With the price of oil, natural gas, propane, electrical power all rising the 15 oak trees in my yard are starting to look good as a substitute heating fuel. With a little labor on my part and cutting down one a year, I figure I can stay warm for the next 15 years.

Chamberlain said she can’t explain why prices are so high. She said she’s never seen price increases like this during the 30 years she’s been in the business.

“It doesn’t seem to be a supply issue,” she said. “I believe speculative trading may be having a large impact, but I can’t tell you for sure.”

Exactly. Speculators again and I demand that my government do something about this! Email the White House, your governor, and other states Gov. Email addresses are on the web, just send them out! This is crazy! Why are our elected officials sitting back and allowing these people to crumple the very economy of our country? Have we allowed our elected officials to become so cowardly that they can't or won't take steps to protect the greater population? These speculators are no better than economic terrorists. Where the heck is 'homeland security' when it comes to our everyday lives and our ability to get to work, keep our families warm, and to take care of our elderly that live on fixed incomes? I'm really starting to think they are worthless.

Interesting changes have occured the past seven years with a president and vice president who have longstanding deep involvement with energy in the Whitehouse...

Joanie quoted Robert Shiller! AWESOME! Others have said it. You know that Senator Dodd, who helped draft a $300 billion taxpayer bailout for "homeowners" (their lenders) just got busted getting favors from Countrywide Mortage? It's kind of illegal, but nothing big is being done. The American consumer is already living on debt, according to the savings rates over the past few years. Energy costs are going to further murder consumer spending, which is a large part of GDP. Just remember that Rome was once great and fell too.

Please search on your browser for Lindsey Williams and watch the video. This may answer a lot of your questions.

A must see...how do the national media ignore this?

I spell out what many politicians are constantly spouting.......and I get more outrage than the politicians do. Political contests are nothing more than American Idol contests with more voters to vote in the candidate that looks the best, dresses the best, wows 'em the best with promises that will never be kept. Most of the promises are nothing more than the ol' Marxist philosophy of from the wealthy to the needy. Where do they think all this money will come from? You guessed it. My family is working harder than ever ( 3 incomes) and we are getting farther behind than ever. I could have really used that 10k stolen from me in the form of taxes last year (FICA, property, everything combined!)

First, we get the news that Dominion's going to bend us over on the power bills, because they're just not making enough money for the stock holders. Now it's the gas bills, because they seriously need to keep the stocks up.

It's so awesome that the state and the various oversight committees don't see anything wrong with this. Federal stimulus to try and get us to spend more money? HOW when the cost of living keeps exceeding the amount of income and stimulus?

The only thing that can possibly stop this sort of thing is government action. The only way we will get action out of the government is through letters, e-mail and phone calls to our representatives. If we don't get any positive results out of them, well, November is coming up rather quickly folks: VOTE THEM OUT OF OFFICE. Until our paychecks go up, which is doubtful that is going to happen anytime soon, you can count on the corporations trying to bilk the middle and poor classes all they can. The only power we have is to force them to change their policies through government action. Obviously the free market system is failing us.

It is amazing how easy it is for some people to suspend reason to support or oppose a party while missing the real issues. Ask yourselves the questions: Have we not had 7 years of a Republican admin, 4 years of which Republicans controlled the House and the Senate? If you accept the premise that Democrats before Bush caused the current energy problems, why then have Republicans done nothing when they had absolute control? How is it that 'investors' driving up prices of commodities through speculation the fault of Democrats? Do some research, the oils companies are not exploring on 75% of the offshore lease they already have. Why? They would spend more of their record profits to explore for it versus being able to drill for cheap the known oil off Virginia and the Carolinas. They need the money to buy back there own stock. Furthermore, if they did it might drive down the price of oil

This is the bottom line folks. I'm waiting to hear someone say this isn't true. What fuel and natural gas shotage? It's long but well worth it!! This is a scam to soak the heck out of America...demand answers from our leaders.

Watch and wait to be amazed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbakN7SLdbk

VNG says, “It doesn’t seem to be a supply issue,” she said. “I believe speculative trading may be having a large impact, but I can’t tell you for sure.”
Who is this person, and what kind of statement is that? She's speculating that it's speculation! I'm really getting tired of "speculators" being the "reason du jour".
VNG's supplier(s) tell them "Oh, by the way we're increasing the wholesale cost of your gas by 35%"..... and VNG DOESN'T ASK WHY!!??
Someone is not telling the whole truth, or is so inept that they do not ask for answers to a HUGE issue.
WHAT I WANT TO HEAR is that "VNG is investigating these abnormal increases on behalf of the customers they serve, in order to provide the highest value for consumers. If we find that market forces are being manipulated, we intend to pursue legislation to interrupt such artificial influencers of wide variations in the price of commodity energy sourc

D.E.,are you kidding me?

be sure to send your democrat party a big thank you. May 13, 2008 congress voted straight down party lines to continue the ban on drilling and exploring for oil and gas in the AMWR, off shore and on shore. Then think back to the ninties when a democrat stood on the beach at VA Beach with a large black tarp covering part of the beach, telling you that this is what you'd see if we allow drilling off shore. Now let's get to the facts. Most of the reserves we have off the coast of VA is NATURAL GAS. In other words, there is no such thing as an oil spill from natural gas. A LIE that the MEDIA allowed the dems to get away with to support the presses biased reporting. More facts, we have more natural gas reserves in the US than nearly anywhere else in the world. More facts, thanks to technology, oil spills are seldom seen now. Case in point, hundreds of rigs were damaged or destroyed in the gulf during Katrina, yet not a si

Has it occured to anyone that one of the biggest consumers of natural gas is the electric companies? and electricity rates are on the rise....do you think maybe it all goes together?

This is all of a speculation boom. First it was the tech and dot com bubble in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Once that popped it all went into housing. The housing bubble popped in 2005-2006 and that is when the commodities bubble started to grow. It is interesting to see that whenever interest rates are dropped really low all of these bubbles seem to start growing.

In 2005 Robert Shiller from Yale put it best, "“Once stocks fell, real estate became the primary outlet for the speculative frenzy that the stock market had unleashed. Where else could plungers apply their newly acquired trading talents? The materialistic display of the big house also has become a salve to bruised egos of disappointed stock investors. These days, the only thing that comes close to real estate as a national obsession is poker.”

When the fed starts raising rates again the commodities bubble will start to deflate. C

The cost of gas makes up 70 percent of a customer’s bill. Natural gas providers usually seek quarterly adjustments to their gas supply costs. The companies then pass that cost on to customers with no markup for profit.

Bull s*&^

Soak the rich? Most of them are the ones that took the risks necessary to make their money. They are the ones that created the jobs so you could make your $25000. Funny that some write of "fair" but their definition of fair is free to them while others pay.
I personally believe that we are seeing a time where speculators are running the markets around in circles. They are playing the game of perceived demand that's artificially causing prices to increase.
Prices will decrease to normal levels once everything works its way out. Probably after the next presidential election.