Posted on 03/03/2013 12:52:55 PM PST by Lorianne
Low natural gas prices the past few years have meant declining tax revenues for area cities, school districts and other taxing entities. Experts say the Barnett Shale probably reached its peak production of just over 6 billion cubic feet a day in 2011, so future royalty payments will be likely tied to prices and shrinking, not growing, production.
That lends support to decisions by Arlington and others to treat the boom as a windfall for long-term investment.
In 2012, natural gas futures prices averaged $2.83 per million Btu, which is roughly 1,000 cubic feet. That was the lowest since 1999, when futures prices averaged $2.32, and was down about 30 percent from 2011.
So far in 2013, the average is $3.33; the price Friday was $3.50.
Exhibit A for that decline is Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, which signed a huge lease in 2006 with Chesapeake Energy, which has since become Tarrant County's largest gas producer. But the airport's royalties fell from $35.1 million in 2008 to $5.2 million last year.
John Terrell, vice president of commercial development at DFW Airport, said the price of gas from the airport's 102 wells averaged just $2.07 per 1,000 cubic feet last year, including a low of $1.30 per 1,000 cubic feet.
The impact of lower prices is evident in the revenue flowing to area taxing authorities, such as cities and school districts. All these figures are for fiscal 2012, which ended Sept. 30.
Fort Worth's natural gas revenues fell 37 percent to $23.1 million.
The Tarrant Regional Water District's oil and gas revenues fell 25 percent, to nearly $21 million.
(Excerpt) Read more at star-telegram.com ...
Honda Civic Natural Gas
http://automobiles.honda.com/civic-natural-gas/
In energy content, 1,000 cu ft of natural gas is roughly equivalent to 8 U.S. gallons of gasoline. Hence, natural gas at $2.83/1000 cu ft is equivalent to gasoline at 35 cents a gallon. That would certainly make driving more affordable. I could get used to filling up my tank for $5.
I remember in the “years of yore”, as my youngest grandson now calls them, going to the local Phillips station once a week with a $5.00 bill. Filled my gas tank with 20 gallons of regular, bought a 4 dip ice cream cone - strawberry made by the owner’s wife - and had change left over.
“In energy content, 1,000 cu ft of natural gas is roughly equivalent to 8 U.S. gallons of gasoline.”
How small a tank can you put the equivalent of 20 gallons of gasoline into? I’m not sure where I’d fill up in my regular 260 mile one-way trips.
Here in Pennsylvania, liberals are complaining that the drilling is slowing down and economic activity is not as brisk as it was in 2011 due to low natural gas prices.
Of course, if natural gas prices remained high, liberals would complain that the energy companies were gouging consumers.
DFW Airport is pulling in $12,420.00 per day in Revenue, or $4,533,300.00 per year.
A tidy sum, not to be complaining about.
There’s a Ford Focus ad that runs here in Michigan that brags that a focus can get from the state capitol to the Mackinaw bridge on a tank of gas.
What the ad doesn’t mention is that most modern cars can easily drive that 240 miles on a tank of gas as well.
This is reported like it is a bad thing.
I remember those days also. i can remember filling my 10 gallon tank, 1957 Chevy, for $2.50 when I came home from the Army in 1962. .25 cents per gallon was quite common then and prices stayed very low up until the phony oil crisis of the seventies.
Giverment Taxing ANY kind of energy is OBSCENE......
So in essence the tax payer cannot save money on any energy entity. If the average citizen saves money it hurts the tax based Government assets and once again you are not paying your fair share! Did not those
Gov establishment also save money? Oh you were’t supposed to account for that!
Get busy and send your donations now to make up for the revenue wasted!
My 2000 Civic 5 speed gets in the mid 30’s with a mix of driving styles.
I paid $3,500 for the car three years ago with no maintenance events save replacing the original equipment 12 year old battery.
It’s the closest thing to free driving I’ve experienced.
My fav car - my folks gave me a red ‘57 Chevy with a white top that would go like the wind, or so it seemed, for high school graduation. We used to have gas wars in Kansas and it would get down to $.19 a gallon. Graduated when I was still 16 and they wouldn’t let me drive after dark - too dangerous they said - but we still managed to squeeze in a little fun.
CNG cars will be about as useful as electric cars: only good for use in and around town. But cheap to drive.
CNG trucks are somewhat more practical, since they can have larger tanks.
Yep, I remember Gas wars, they were great until the frickin' government outlawed them.
No kidding! The article say they collected around 300 million in total. Just like any government the more they get the more they spend.
Isn’t the CNG Civic about $5000 more than a regular Civic? So, the tricky part is figuring out what the price of natural gas compared to gasoline will be (no one knows for sure, even though CNG looks to be cheaper for a while at least), how long you intend to keep the car, and whether CNG vehicles have the same maintenance costs as other Civics.
In other words, it’s a poser! :-)
At the link it says you get $3,000 in free fuel with the purchase of the car.
The Honda Civic GX (CNG fueled) has a stated range of 220 miles. In the right conditions, it can reach over 400 miles.
http://green.autoblog.com/2012/10/12/honda-offering-3-000-gas-card-with-civic-natural-gas-purchase/
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