Aside from food, shelter, transportation and health insurance, one of the largest houshold expenses is energy. My question today is why are some sources of energy subject to government regulation and others not? Electricity and natural gas are regulated while propane and home heating oil are not. Why not?
Should not home heating oil and propane also have some form of price regulation? When used for home heating why is propane treated any differently than natural gas? Home heating oil is likely the most the most volatile of these energy sources due to oil price fluctuations but should the consumer have some sort of protection from wild price swings in home energy costs? Often those affected the most by these swings are in older homes, the northeast states and rural areas. The residents of these areas who are poor or on fixed incomes are especially vulnerable to these commodity price swings. Even with various assistance programs available, this volatility can often still make these energy souces unaffordable to the people who are forced to rely on them.
The question is simple, can we or should we institute regulation on the prices of home heating oil, propane and other sources of energy, when used for home heating purposes?
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