With rising natural gas prices, residents look to other, less
expensive sources of heat to last them through the winter.

Nancy Taylor, spokesperson for National Fuel, said Thursday
natural gas prices are 40 percent higher than they were last year
at this time.

“We will not have the opportunity to change rates until
February,” Taylor said, adding whether the rates go up or down is
dependent on the weather.

A lot of customers that have anticipated high winter bills have
switched over to the company’s budget plan. Taylor said a little
better than a third of the customers are on the budget plan and
that there has been about a 7 to 8 percent increase in customers on
the budget plan in the last four to six weeks.

“That’s a great idea,” Taylor said. “We recommend that.”

Taylor said any customers having problems or a hard time paying
bills should give National Fuel a call. She said they would try to
work out a resolution to any problem.

“We traditionally treat customers in a one-on-one situation,”
Taylor said.

She also said it was too early to tell if they’ll have more
payment arrangements available.

Along with natural gas prices, the price of propane is also
going up.

A representative at Bradford Nugas said prices have gone up
through the summer about five dollars, and the prices are now
higher than they’ve ever been. The representative said she doubts
the price will go down for a while. She said they don’t really
recommend that people with natural gas switch over to propane since
houses are set up with either an existing propane or natural gas
line.

Bud Rich, part owner of Richgas Inc., said there has been an
increase in propane prices. Rich expects the prices to increase
again, and he said the company is trying to hold their rates down
as long as they can. He said Wednesday the price has gone up about
five or six cents in the last few days. He said if the price of
propane levels off immediately, the company wouldn’t have to raise
prices, but if the price of propane goes up again, they’d have to
raise the prices.

Rich said Richgas mostly sells 500 gallon tanks for residential
heating. He said the company charges a rate for the amount of
usage, and the usage depends on how warm the home is, the shape of
the home, how many people are home over the day and outdoor
temperatures.

Rich said people are conserving now out of necessity. He said
political figures have been working on energy assistance programs
for months. He said they’re trying to get the political figures to
increase the energy assistance since the assistance they’re
offering has been the same as it has been in the past.

“A lot of people have used up their assistance already,” Rich
said. “The sh- is going to hit the fan here in a few weeks when
people have no more energy assistance. They cannot go without
heat.”

Rich encourages residents to call their representatives to ask
for more energy assistance since a lot of people are going to need
the help. He said their is money available for the extra
assistance, but “the politicians don’t give a damn.”

If the bills seem like too much of a hassle, there are alternate
sources of heating available. One is firewood.

A representative from O&A Firewood in Kane, who have been in
the business for a few years now, said already sales have been a
lot better this year than in past years. He said they have had a
lot of new customers.

One local resident is selling about eight or nine cords of
firewood this year. He said he used to sell it a long time ago and
has just started back into it again. He said several people have
called him already.

A spokesperson for the Bradford office of the Allegheny National
Forest said they have sold quite a few firewood cutting permits.
The spokesperson said a lot of the people getting permits have
never had a permit before and that some that had permits before are
getting permits in a higher quantity than they have in the
past.

A salesman at Bisett Building Center said there has been an
increase of sales in chimney pipes.

“We’ve had very good luck with that this year,” he said.

He said they’ve sold some wood stoves and are selling a lot more
insulation this year as well as fiberglass insulation. He said
there have been several people coming in to check on these
alternate heating sources.

He also said the sales of natural gas logs has basically been
the same as in the past.

Marcia McAdams, manager at Worth W. Smith, said anything in the
heating line is selling well. She said the Harmon pellet stoves
they sell have “skyrocketed” in sales, starting back in September
and selling out.

McAdams said they had a couple of other orders for pellet stoves
and have a few in that they haven’t gotten out onto the floor yet.
She said most of the stoves sell before they reach the floor. She
also said they have a shortage of pellets with the numbers of
people buying pellet stoves.

“They can’t make them fast enough to provide people with another
heating source besides gas,” McAdams said. “We just can’t keep it
in stock. We get it in, and it goes out the door.”

McAdams also said frontless and ventless heaters are also
selling very well. She said they’re selling a lot of stove pipes
and they have coal stoves and wood stoves.

“We can’t get anymore of them either,” McAdams said. “Coal’s
coming in a little bit faster, but there’s a shortage of supplies.
It’s tough to get to supply the customers.”

Mike Pearson, manager at Valu Home Center in Bradford, said
sales have been great on insulation and weather stripping.