Heating with natural gas is not quite the burden it was last year.

Friday, January 11, 2002

Heating with natural gas is not quite the burden it was last year. According to estimates provided by officials with Alliant Energy in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, natural gas costs should be nearly 42 percent less than in January of 2001.

Actual savings locally will vary, but lower gas prices will be welcome news for many local organizations.

&uot;Everybody’s benefiting from these lower prices. And it means big savings for us,&uot; said Bruce Olson, the administrator in charge of facilities for the Albert Lea School District. The district has a contract with Alliant and is currently paying $2.80 per btu for gas, compared with $10 or more last winter.

Lower prices will allow the district to more easily stay within its budget for energy costs. Nobody wants a surprise like last winter’s heating bills, said Olson.

Dennis Dieser, Albert Lea Family Y director, doesn’t have exact figures yet for energy use at the Y, but the costs for heating the building have been substantially lower than last year. It may not be enough of a savings to shift any funds to programs, but it is making balancing a tight budget much easier, he said.

Lower gas bills for consumers are the result of decreased wholesale natural gas prices, according to Alliant, and the unusually warm weather so far this winter.