Gas Shortage May Raise School’s Bills
  
by Bill Lascher

As the energy crisis in California has grown, a concurrent shortage of natural gas has hidden in the shadows of headlines about rolling blackouts and deregulation. This shortage is compounding the situation in California, where some of the power is generated by natural gas fired plants. However, the repercussions of this shortage hit strongly in Ohio, where the cost of heating has risen as gas supplies have fallen.
Because bills for gas purchased in January are not yet available it is difficult to gauge the extent to which Oberlin College has been affected by the shortages. The school uses natural gas purchased from the Columbia Gas Company in addition to the coal-powered central heating plant to provide warmth to many of the school’s facilities.
“It really hasn’t been that horrible,” Administrative Assistant for Facilities Operations Debra Skolyak said. The actual monetary figure is confidential, but she was able to say that the price the school paid increased by ninety percent in December before dropping by ten percent the next month.
While the overall total the school has paid for gas has not risen significantly since November, the price paid for each cubic foot of gas the school uses has. 
January’s bill, covering costs incurred in December, charged the school approximately $1.32 for each cubic foot of gas used. This was the highest this cost had been in the past three months.
The school doesn’t get gas from just one company. Skolyak explained that in an attempt to weigh gas company options, a different company is used for some buildings on the upper part of campus. “We are trying to see if we are saving as much,” Skolyak said.
However, she explained that logistical difficulties and the fact that the transactions aren’t handled electronically diminish the savings. The added bureaucracy that results also translates to more manpower, which further drains the amount of money left over. “The savings would be there if the company functioned properly,” she said. “When you figure in the manpower and problems with the company I are no savings. If everything was done electronically, you could save a lot.”