The Free Times has offered me a chance to sound off in print every couple of weeks. My second Foray Into Newsprint is in today's edition (Heating Costs Suck: Rising natural gas prices draining millions from Ohio).
If you're here because you saw the URL at the bottom of the column, welcome.
The column has one glaring oversimplification: I ignored the whole issue of multiple natural gas suppliers offering "choice" to local consumers with various contract prices and terms. The column talks only about Dominion East Ohio, which is really the local distribution company for all those sources including its own affiliated supplier, Dominion East Ohio Energy.
I ignored the issue of "consumer choice" because a) it's way too complicated to describe in a 700 word piece, and b) it doesn't matter. Households throughout the Dominion East Ohio system have similar bills and similar increases no matter which suppliers they "choose" on paper. Those who ignore the "choice" option and just let Dominion East Ohio buy our gas for us are consistently at the lower-cost end of the PUCO's "Apples to Apples" comparison charts. Most important, almost all that gas, no matter who the suppliers might be, comes from outside our region through the Dominion pipeline... which is what the column is about.
But if you're interested, here's a comparison of Dominion East Ohio's non-choice "utility rate" (what my family pays) with the rates paid under contracts with "consumer choice" suppliers who appear on the PUCO charts for both February 2006 and February 2003:
Not much of a "choice", is it?