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Clark W. Griswold, Jr.

wrote:

But clearly this whole argument against nat
gas heat is all based on emotion, rather than fact. The price of
heating oil varies. The price of nat gas varies. Over the past, in my
experience, they have been similar enough in their total cost that it's
not a major difference.

There is definitely some regional bias involved. Historically, the US east coast
has used fuel oil for heat, so there tends to be a "this is how we've always
done it, so it must be right" mentality going on.

20+ years ago, oil was substantially more expensive than natural gas. The east
coast didn't have the supply infrastructure to distribute natural gas, so few
could take advantage of that differential.

With all the EPA restrictions on new power plants, utilities built gas fired
plants which sucked up most of the surplus gas and drove natural gas prices up
closer to fuel oil.

ConnocoPhillips has an interesting article with graphics that shows price
differences over the past 5 years:

http://www.conocophillips.com/newsro...eating_oil.htm