(Des Moines, IA) -- Natural gas prices are up as we head into the winter heating season.
"This is really not an Iowa or Midwest-only issue, this is a worldwide issue," says Geoff Greenwood with MidAmerican Energy. "Worldwide demand for natural gas is up. Here in America, production is down and our storage is down. That translates into higher market prices. And this year, they're more than double what they were at this time last year."
Greenwood says that for their customers in Iowa, that will mean a 46 to 96 percent increase in heating bills this winter. He says MidAmerican prices may be a little better than some other U.S. energy companies because they take steps that can help level out spikes in the price of natural gas. "That includes buying gas in advance by locking down contracts on gas that's less expensive, and we also store natural gas that we can provide to our customers when those prices go up, and that helps keep the costs down for our customers."
MidAmerican Energy serves customers in the Des Moines metro area, Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, Waterloo, the Quad Cities, and a large part of Western Iowa including Council Bluffs.