Natural Gas is one of the most versatile, dependable sources of energy available to today's homeowners and businesses. Compared to other fuels, natural gas offers many advantages:

• Economical - Natural Gas is still one of the best values in today's volatile energy market. With Natural Gas in your home, it's possible to save as much as 10 to 60% over propane or fuel oil. Unlike propane or oil that you pre-pay for, you don’t pay for Natural Gas until after you use it. Plus, Natural Gas appliances are so efficient to operate that you'll save on overall energy costs.
• Convenient - Natural Gas is delivered directly into your home or business from underground pipelines as you use it. You'll never have to worry about running low or storing tanks on site.
• Green – There are numerous reasons why Natural Gas is the choice when it comes to the environment:
  • Clean and efficient burning fuel.
  • Virtually no atmospheric emissions of small particulate matter or sulfur dioxide.
  • Far lower levels of "greenhouse" gases and nitrogen oxides.
  • Produces virtually no solid waste and has much less impact on water quality.
  • No requirements for an underground fuel tank, eliminating any possible chance of spills or fuel leaks.
  • No trucks burning gas or diesel to deliver the commodity to my you home or business
• Safe - Natural Gas is colorless, odorless, tasteless and non-toxic. A special odorant is added to help identify gas leaks. Unlike propane, Natural Gas is also lighter than air which means it vents easier if a leak does develop.
• Abundant - It's estimated by Kennesaw University that there is a 70-year reserve of Natural Gas in the lower 48 states at current production levels. You'll rest easy knowing that over 97% of our nation's Natural Gas comes from right here in North America with no dependence on unstable foreign nations.
• Efficient - Natural Gas heating systems and appliances have the highest "total energy efficiency," which translates into the best energy value.
• Clean - Natural Gas is clean-burning fuel compared to other fossil fuels such as coal and oil. Choosing gas is better for the environment, because it helps avoid an increase in pollutants, such as greenhouse gas emissions, acid rain, smog, solid waste and water pollution.

Even with all of these benefits, there has to be an economical driver in order for any home or business to consider changing their energy source. The hope is that the economics will justify the necessary changes that will allow you to enjoy all of the benefits of Natural Gas. The following data will show that Natural Gas is the right choice to reduce cost, to reduce price fluctuation concerns, and to reduce the fear of fuel availability in the future. Much of the data was gathered from independent sources to ensure integrity of the information.  

How Frontier Natural Gas Pricing Works

Frontier Natural Gas pricing and profits and regulated by the government. Therefore, the price is the same for each rate class. Basically, the cost of the actual gas is a direct pass through to the customer. Frontier charges an energy charge or transportation rate per therm and a monthly facility charge. These two charges vary by rate class. Our transportation rates are the same for each rate class and each rate class is based on a minimum usage which is currently locked until 2012. Unlike the propane industry, Frontier can not charge one commercial customer one price and go two miles down the road and charge another customer a higher price. If a large industrial customer purchases their own gas and Frontier only transports the gas, a different price cap and set of transportation rules apply.

Historical & Future Cost of Energy

The energy market has fluctuated much over the last 9 years and none have gone unchanged. However, all energy sources are not created equal and some have increased in price more then others. The following chart, as published by the Energy Information Administration, shows the cost of energy sources over the last 9 years and future projections.

This shows, not only has Propane price increased at an unprecedented rate compared to Natural Gas but it has even out paced #2 Fuel oil. The graph shows that the spread between Natural Gas and the alternate energy sources will continue through 2009 as published by the Energy Information Administration. Based on this and the last 9 years of history, the spread is most likely to continue far into the future.

Energy Content

Different types of energy are measured by different physical units: barrels or gallons for petroleum; cubic feet for natural gas; tons for coal; kilowatt-hours for electricity. To compare different fuels, we need to convert the measurements to the same units. Some popular units for comparing energy include: British Thermal Units (Btu), barrels of oil equivalents, metric tons of oil equivalents, metric tons of coal equivalents, and terajoules. In the United States, the British thermal unit (Btu), a measure of heat energy, is the most commonly used unit for comparing fuels. Because energy used in different countries comes from different places, the Btu content of fuels varies slightly from country to country. The Btu content used in the energy calculations reflect the average energy contents for fuels consumed in the United States.

The following table shows the BTU energy content and other factors, as published in the Federal Register:

*Note:

The last column shows the equivalent Therms of Natural Gas required to equal the BTU’s in the alternate energy source.

Example:

For every 100 Gallons of Propane used how much Natural gas will you need use to equal this usage:

            100 Gallons * .9160 Therms/Gallon = 91.60 Therms of Natural Gas