Ripon College Days

With the biggest snowstorm of the year and temperatures well below zero degrees, Ripon College and its students are forced to remember the higher than normal price of natural gas.

"We have seen an increase in our natural gas prices this year," says Lori Erdmann, Ripon College's controller. "Currently we are experiencing approximately a 30 percent increase in prices compared to last year."

Though this is a significant rise in cost, especially with the recent bout of freezing-cold weather, the college has not cut any specific costs.

"We have not taken any specific cost-cutting measures, but we continually look at ways to reduce our consumption of natural gas," Erdmann says.

However, Layne Sessions, director of the physical plant, explains, "We simply don't have the time to adjust the temperature in every building. The boilers are set based on the outside temperature and those set temperatures have not been reduced from last year to this year, [despite the increase in natural gas prices]."

Off campus students, on the other hand, are paying high prices despite keeping their homes at very low temperatures.

"We keep our house at 65 degrees when we're here, and 62 when we're not, and we still freeze to death," says senior Anna Davidson. "We've done as much as we can, put plastic on the windows and so on, but our bills are still more than $250 per month."

There are a number of reasons for such high prices, as any fuel source market is heavily influenced by a number of factors.

Supply and demand are the driving forces, and though the demand is less than the supply in this area, as overall winter temperatures have been moderate, other factors including taxes, government regulations and natural disasters, are all factors contributing to higher prices.

First, according to the State of Wisconsin's Web site, taxes on natural gas in the state are 52 cents on the dollar, compared to New York's 62, and Alaska's 29. In fact, Wisconsin has the fifth highest natural gas taxes in the country.

Also, according to the Chevron Corporation, after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, up to 14 percent of the United States' natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico was shut in. As a result, that product was lost to the market, increasing the prices of the available natural gas significantly. Production in the Gulf slowed, and for some time the supply could not meet the demand.

And, various government regulations continue to put monetary stress on the natural gas production companies, as well as individuals.

Though many will continue to wear scarves and mittens in their own homes to fight the high gas prices, spring may be just around the corner.

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