Oregon Public Broadcasting

Energy demand has dropped because of the recession and that means energy prices have dropped too. As Kristian Foden-Vencil reports, heating bills are likely to be significantly lower this winter.

The price of natural gas has dropped by about one third over the last year. But your bill won’t drop that much because the fees for running facilities and maintaining pipes haven’t dropped.

But NW Natural says home owners will see savings of about 15 percent in Oregon and 22 percent in Washington.

For the average household that translates to $12 a month in Oregon and $20 in Washington.

Randy Friedman, buys gas futures for NW Natural.

Randy Friedman: “Last year and the year before that we decided not to lock in our prices for multiple years, because we thought things might be coming down. Right now, in the last few months, we’ve been locking things down for multiple years.”

He says the expected savings could change by the time NW Natural files its pricing proposal with the Public Utility Commission next week, but not by much.

New prices take effect November 1st.