The city of Boulder, a haven of anti-fracking activism, offered tips Monday to residents struggling with rising home-heating prices amid a global natural-gas shortage.
The city’s website warned that residential natural gas bills are expected to increase this year by 37% over last winter and offered hints to keep costs down, including lowering the thermostat, washing clothes in cold water, and dressing in layers.
“It’s not just up to your furnace to keep you warm,” the Boulder website said. “Dressing in layers can keep you warm while relying less on your heat source.”
Citing data from Xcel Energy, the city said that the average natural gas bill is expected to rise from $71 to about $98 per month, not including electricity costs.
“Behind the bigger bills are higher energy costs nationally and natural gas supply challenges,” the Boulder tip sheet says.
Its title is “Heating Costs Are Rising This Winter. Here’s How to Keep Your Bill Affordable.”
The irony was not lost on the Colorado Republican Party, given Boulder’s years of hostility to the oil-and-gas industry. The city and county of Boulder filed a lawsuit in 2018 against ExxonMobil and Suncor seeking “damages related to climate change.”
From 2013 to 2021, Boulder had a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, which was lifted last month as the city council enacted tough new regulations on the industry. In 2018, Boulder voters approved an oil-and-gas pollution tax.
“Boulder has blocked energy [development] at every turn, pushed statewide policies to ban fracking, and sued energy companies – now they are complaining about the high energy costs and supply challenges they helped create,” tweeted the Colorado GOP.
U.S. natural gas prices skyrocketed in October and November, hitting their highest level since 2014 before dipping amid warmer-than-average temperatures in December.
Boulder has blocked energy developed at every turn, pushed statewide policies to ban fracking, and sued energy companies – now they are complaining about the high energy costs and supply challenges they helped create. https://t.co/WPXKPaXpCQ
— The Colorado GOP (@cologop) January 10, 2022
The U.S. Energy Information Administration said production of both crude oil and natural gas declined in 2020 “with decreased demand following responses to the COVID-19 pandemic,” and that inventories “entered the 2021-22 winter heating season at the lowest level since 2018.”
Read rest at Washington Times
The lesson here is that never let a idiotic and stupid liberal ideology get in the way of good old Fashion Common Sense
I am kind of an “odd ball.” I live in Boulder and I’m a retired oil & gas professional. The locals (here) are really not a whole lot different than many other regions of the country. The average American has NO IDEA what it takes to put electricity in a wall socket or responsibly get a gallon of gasoline to a pump. So, this lack of “energy literacy” is why these various enviro activists groups have taken full advantage. Where this terminates in a “dead end” is these activists offer no CONSTRUCTIVE SOLUTIONS to replacing fossil fuels. All you hear is what is BAD. No capacity to see anything GOOD and no answers for the “hole” we are currently digging our domestic energy system into. The citizenry would be well advised to start taking a little more interest in energy matters & educating themselves on what viable alternatives are out there. Continued vilification of 80% of our domestic primary energy is not a plan for prosperity. It’s a recipe for energy POVERTY ..
Randy, I lived since ’85 in northern Colorado and live now in SE Aurora. Of course the activists cannot offer an alternative because they have none. And the Polis administration has done all it could to squelch development of our oil and gas field in the northeast Colorado where we can get the natural gas we need to keep these price increases.
As much as I wish I don’t think we can flip the state houses and the governorship but what really needs to be done also is to get rid of the requirements that any continuing increasing percentage of our electricity from VERY costly and unreliable sources of electricity.
Hi Randy, I also worked in the petroleum industry pre retirement and you are right. Most people have no idea what it takes to find oil, clean it up, turn it into something usable then get it to were people can buy it.
I consider myself fortunate to have worked for ExxonMobil for 35 years because it is a wonderful company and they treated me extremely well. I know the company genuinely cares about people and what its activities might do to endanger them, so every action possible is taken to make sure what they do is safe for everyone.
Today’s situation of low supplies is self inflicted. The oil co’s have been kicked from pillar to post and they have responded. They reduced looking for new deposits. They reduced capital investment and tried to keep their heads down while the outside world seemed to go nuts. That’s now changing when all of a sudden the nutters have realised they need more oil and gasoline, but the pipes are dry.
As I’ve briefly said, it takes a lot to get petroleum to where it’s needed and the way the oil co’s have been treated lately, those who hate them can consider themselves lucky we have what we have because the cut-backs could have been much greater if the oil co’s decided to go harder.
I wonder if they are too stupid to understand “F*** OFF!”?
Their sounding like they are in Southern California L.A. is run by total idiots and populated with fools who reelect them