Living in the mountains has its perks. Trying to keep homes warm in the winter is not among them.
Mountain residents this season have borne the full brunt of record-high natural-gas prices that have pushed home-heating bills up to chilling heights.
Colorado’s winter climate this year has been a tale of two temperature zones.
The Front Range has enjoyed an unusually warm winter, mild enough that heating bills have been noticeably lower than originally forecast.
But Colorado’s mountain communities have endured a winter that has been snowier and slightly colder than average. Forecasts last fall of soaring heating bills and financial hardship have hit home with a cold reality.
Still in shock over last winter’s peak heating bill of $665, Gunnison resident April Prout recently moved to a smaller home, in part to save on utility costs.
The result: a tamer but still eye-popping natural-gas bill of about $300 for December.
“Those bills really kill you when you’re trying to make a living,” said Prout, an employee at Crested Butte Mountain Resort. “There’s a balance between living comfortably and just making ends meet, and it’s been hard to find that balance.”
Gunnison, always one of Colorado’s coldest cities, has been 6 degrees colder this winter compared with its 30-year average, according to the Colorado Climate Center at Colorado State University. The city has endured 20 days this winter when temperatures were minus 20 or colder.
Meanwhile, metro Denver is set to enjoy the 12th-warmest winter in 60 years if February and March temperatures stay close to average, according to the National Weather Service.
Utilities and energy experts had warned last fall that sharp increases in natural-gas prices would lead to heating bills far higher than customers had ever seen. But because temperatures nationwide have been warmer than average, demand for gas has been lower than expected. Prices still hit record highs this winter but moved off those highs to levels that were lower than originally forecast.
Natural-gas prices last week reached a seven-month low of $7.06 per million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. They hit a record high of $15.38 per unit late last year, in part because of damage to Gulf Coast gas production from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
“We certainly hope that we are through the worst of the winter weather and that natural-gas prices will continue to trend downward,” said Xcel Energy spokesman Mark Stutz.
“But even with the relatively warmer weather statewide since mid-December, higher prices for natural gas this winter heating season are resulting in bills that are about 25 to 30 percent higher than (a year ago),” he said. “For certain areas of the mountains, bills could even be slightly higher because they experienced colder weather than the statewide average for their areas in December and January.”
Yampa resident Jeffry Miller planned to heat his northwestern Colorado home this winter primarily with a wood-burning stove. Last fall, he collected four cords of wood – enough, he thought, to last him well into next year. But with at least two months of heating still ahead, he’s down to one-half cord.
Meanwhile, Miller’s condo-cleaning business failed, and he has been unable to find work in building maintenance.
“It’s been a very tough winter for us,” he said. “It’s been the toughest winter I can remember.”
With the prospect of sharply reduced household income and dwindling wood supplies, Miller applied this winter for low-income energy assistance. A grant from Energy Outreach Colorado allowed him to buy a tank of propane for home heating.
That helped, but the tank is getting low and Miller now faces the prospect of propane prices that have risen.
Energy Outreach Colorado plans to distribute a record $4 million this year to qualified recipients, but the grants aren’t keeping up with energy costs that have tripled over the past three years, said Jennifer Gremmert, deputy director of the nonprofit assistance agency.
“It has been even worse,” she said, “for these people who live at altitude and have had more than their fair share of snow and cold weather.”
Staff writer Steve Raabe can be reached at 303-820-1948 or sraabe@denverpost.com.
