Stunning Fact: Consumers Spend The Same Amount For Natural Gas & Alcohol

Consumers on average spend about 1% of their income on natural gas, the same amount they spend for alcohol.  www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=8170.

That is a stunning fact, but averages always conceal as much as they reveal.  A large number of consumers, about half, spend nothing on natural gas, since they do not use natural gas at their homes or businesses, and a much smaller number of consumers don't drink alcohol.  

About 51% of consumers heat their property with natural gas, and those consumers spend more of their income on natural gas than 1%.  But even for these consumers today's low gas prices minimize the hit to the pocketbook.  Consumers heating with gas typically spend around $1,000 per year or about 2% of a median income families' income before taxes.  The same family would have spent close to $2,000 or 4% of their pre-tax income, given the natural gas prices of 2008.  Natural gas is certainly a tremendous bargain at this time.