Hi Mike,

You're welcome. Domestic natural gas production peaked back in 1973.
I believe current U.S. demand is somewhere around 22 trillion cubic
feet per year, twenty per cent of which is imported from outside
sources. As domestic production continues to fall and as demand
continues to rise, this ever-widening gap will be made up through
additional imports. That puts the U.S. in an unenviable position both
economically and politically speaking, and in terms of its national
security. See where I'm going here?

Your best course of action is to aggressively reduce your home's
energy demands through generous insulation and careful air sealing.
That should be your number one priority. Once you've done everything
you can on that front, investigate your heating options and choose the
one likely to offer the lowest long-term operating costs and the
greatest security of supply. I don't know much about BGE's fuel mix
but I seem to recall it's heavily weighted towards nuclear and coal,
both domestic sources.

As it stands now, a high efficiency heat pump can provide heat at less
than one-third the cost of your current heating system and even below
that of a high efficiency gas furnace. Over the long term, I tend to
believe it's one of your best choices.

Cheers,
Paul

On Sun, 28 Jan 2007 01:26:42 GMT, "Mike" wrote:

Hi Paul, thanks for the useful information. I'll check out each link.
BGE rates going up - I suspect the "delivery charge" will be going up too.
Nobody has ever saved money using deregulated gas or electric.
What a major rip off.

Mike