• Residential consumers spent $23.2 billion for natural gas heating during the 1996/97 winter heating season, 10 percent more than they spent the previous winter. The increased expenditure was due to higher prices, as warmer temperatures caused consumption to be less than the previous year.

• A key characteristic affecting residential gas customers is that the impact of price increases often is exacerbated by corresponding increases in volumes consumed, thus raising total expenditures by more than the price or volume increase alone. This ‘multiplier effect' is manifested in consumers' bills.

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