With crude oil prices at their highest level in seven years, gas prices aren’t the only things fuel-related being impacted by the 80-dollar a barrel price. LSU Professor David Dismukes says winter heating bills in Louisiana are expected to be impacted negatively. “It’s going to be a really tough winter for a lot of households for a lot of Louisiana so it’s some to be concerned about,” said Dismukes.
Dismukes, who is Executive Director of LSU’s Center for Energy Studies, says the rising price of crude is happening at the same time as natural gas prices head higher, and thus the cost of power generation in the state. He says while the state is not that reliant on heating oil to keep homes and businesses warm during the winter, the price of crude still impacts the costs of other fuel options. “We do use natural gas for heating purposes down here, we also use it a lot for power generation, about 70 percent of our power generation comes from natural gas and prices are skyrocketing,” according to Dismukes.
While you might think that rising oil prices might be a positive thing for Louisiana’s oil and gas industry, Dismukes says that’s not necessarily the case given the Biden administration’s negative thoughts on fossil fuels. He says, “they’re not really sending strong warm incentives, warm fuzzy feelings to oil and gas companies to throw dollars in the ground and start drilling wells right now.”
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