Philadelphians Catching a Break on Natural Gas Prices

Susan Phillips

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Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

June 1, 2012 | 2:30 PM

Although no shale deposits lie beneath Southeast Pennsylvania, Philadelphia residents are reaping some benefits from the Marcellus Shale boom. Philadelphia Gas Works announced today that they’re dropping their rates, cutting residential heating bills by an average of 2.5 percent.

“In the last year alone, PGW’s natural gas rate has fallen from $1.562 per hundred cubic feet (Ccf) on June 1, 2011, to today’s rate of $1.35623 per Ccf for residential customers. On an annualized basis, the average PGW residential customer, using 880 Ccf of natural gas a year, now pays $181 less than they did twelve months ago.”

PGW does not purchase its gas directly from Marcellus Shale deposits. But the shale gas drilling has created a surplus of natural gas, driving down the price nationwide.