Many homes around this country used fuel oil of some description
until about 20-30 years ago when it got too expensive. Although we
are thin on the ground and the ground is large, mains gas (methane)
is generally available - because there was no real choice. Bottled
gas was relatively common around here but that has died away with the
spread of natural gas - by popular demand. Remote areas have LPG tanks.
The point I'm making is that when oil was cheap, people used it. When
it got expensive, in the early 1970's, people demanded a cheaper
alternative and got it. Some went to electricity but that got
expensive on them as well. I suspect that there is no shortage of
natural gas in N. America - until now there's been little incentive
to use anything but oil. Time to change.
Andrew Fildes
afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
On 13/05/2008, at 4:03 PM, Chris Crawford wrote:
> In many parts of the USA, especially rural areas, natural gas for home
> heating is not available. The infrastructure for that has been
> built in most
> cities and towns but many areas outside the urban areas simply
> don't have
> the pipes running to them. Those people use heating oil, Kerosene, or
> Propane. Which they use seems to depend on the area they live,
> different
> parts of the country seem to run on different fuels from what I've
> seen.
> Here in Indiana, propane is commonly used in rural areas and the
> houses all
> have an enormous propane tank next to the house that is filled once
> or twice
> a year.
>
> Many newer houses use electricity instead of burning gas or oil for
> heat,
> and right now that is a lot cheaper than petroleum where I live (our
> electricity comes from a nuclear plant primarily, with some coming
> from a
> coal-burning plant and coal is cheap and plentiful if not good for the
> environment).
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