While the country continues to nervously eye the price of a barrel of gas, one source of clean fossil fuel quietly continues to play a critical role in the clean energy future of Southern California. Southern California Gas Company, now the nation’s largest natural gas distribution utility, provides energy and innovative service concepts to over 21 million customers in more than 500 communities.
If you use natural gas, you probably already know that it’s your smallest utility bill. Households that use natural gas for heating, water heating, cooking and clothes drying spend an average of almost $700 less per year than homes using electricity for those same applications. Natural gas is cheaper than electricity, propane or fuel oil for residential consumers.
Cost, however, is not the only reason to consider natural gas as you appliance shop or consider a renovation for your house. Natural gas is a plentiful home-grown American resource; it’s estimated the United States has enough natural gas to meet the country’s demand for more than 100 years.
Thanks to the laws of supply and demand, this protects consumers from giant upward leaps in pricing down the road, and new technologies offer the potential to capture methane, the primary ingredient in natural gas, from existing waste stream sources to make a renewable form of natural gas.
United Parcel Service is a good example of innovative use of natural gas. UPS has one of the largest private fleets of compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles in the country, with more than 1,000 package delivery vehicles. UPS began using CNG in 1989. Particulate emissions are 95 percent lower, and they have reduced carbon monoxide emissions from their fleet by 75 percent.
UPS is investing in 1,400 new CNG vehicles: 800 heavy-duty tractors and 600 package delivery vans. The company has also reduced its operating costs; fuel consumption accounts for an average of 5.6 percent of UPS’ operating revenues and with the switch to natural gas, they have essentially cut their fuel costs in half!
But along with the abundance of natural gas and creating energy tools for businesses, Southern California Gas also offers incentives that can help make Santa Clarita homes more comfortable, improve their air quality, help save energy and possibly even lower energy bills.
Incentives of up to $6,500 from SoCalGas are available to help Santa Clarita home owners who use a participating contractor or whole-house energy rater for energy savings on the renovation project. Typical projects in the Advanced Home Upgrade include high-efficiency furnaces, energy-efficient cooling equipment, water heater systems, energy-efficient windows, duct replacement and wall insulation.
Find out how Southern California Gas can save you money while improving your quality of life.
