Heating bills expected to rise this winter

The government predicted Tuesday that most households will pay more for heat this winter.

Prices for natural gas, electricity and propane should be higher, the primary reason that more than 90 percent of U.S. homes will incur higher heating expenses.

Natural gas users will see the biggest percentage increase after two years of historically low prices.

Their heating bills should rise to an average of $679, the Energy Department said in its annual outlook for heating costs.

That is about 13 percent higher than a year ago but 4 percent below the average for the previous five winters.

Homes relying on electricity for heat, about 38 percent of the U.S., will likely pay about 2 percent more compared with last year.

Just more than half of U.S. households use natural gas for heating. Many of the 38 percent of U.S. households that use electric heat live in warm regions where heating demand is not high. Only 6 percent use heating oil, but those homes tend to be in New England and New York, where winter heating needs are high.

Natural gas should average $11 per thousand cubic feet, the government said. That's $1.33 more than last year, but still below nearly $13 per thousand cubic feet that homeowners paid in the winter of 2008-2009.

Dave Streit, a meteorologist at the Commodity Weather Group, which forecasts weather patterns to predict energy demand, expects slightly cooler than normal temperatures.

"It will look like a colder winter than what we've seen over the last couple of years," he says. "But nothing compared to the harsh winters we had in the two years before that."

Mark Wolfe, Executive Director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, which advocates for heating assistance for low income families, worries that high heating prices, colder weather, and cuts in federal heating assistance will leave more families vulnerable.

In 2010, Congress set aside $5.1 billion for heating assistance. This year, Wolfe is expecting $3 billion.

"Two years ago, we could help close to 2 million more families than we can now," Wolfe said.