EIA: Household Heating This Winter Should Be Less Expensive Than Last Two Winters -- October 6, 2015, Part II

Link here. Lots of graphs and data.

Almost half of U.S. households use natural gas as their primary heating fuel. EIA expects households heating with natural gas to spend an average of $64 (10%) less this winter than last winter. The decrease in natural gas expenditures is the net result of 6% lower fuel consumption, and 4% lower residential natural gas prices compared to last winter. Heading into the heating season, EIA projects storage inventories will total 3,956 billion cubic feet, which would be a record high.

Houston County, Minnesota: the proposal to ban frack sand mining in the county was withdrawn by those who had submitted it, the Houston County Protectors. (Quaint, huh?) The proposal was rejected by the Houston County Planning Commission on a 5 - 2 vote on September 29, 2015.

Freeport-McMoRan considers exiting the oil and gas business. It would spin off its oil and gas assets.

Best headline of the day, over at the Wall Street Journal: OPEC worried about its image. With ISIS running amok and the Russians sending in troops, that should be the least of their worries, image. This must be a really, really slow news day.

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The Apple Page

Porsche will adopt Apple's CarPlay; will not take Android.

Earlier this was reported:

Apple announced CarPlay with several big-name partners already on board, like BMW, Ford, GM, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Nissan, and more. Many of these manufacturers initially targeted 2014 launch dates for CarPlay-enabled vehicles, but delays have pushed potential launches into 2015 and 2016. For a long time, Ferrari was the only manufacturer with a CarPlay vehicle available, but support is becoming more widespread in the summer of 2015. 

Many of Apple's partners have remained silent on release dates, but manufacturers like Volkswagen, Honda, and Chevy have already released multiple 2016 vehicles with CarPlay support, with others like Buick, GMC, and Cadillac promising CarPlay-equipped vehicles in 2016.

Everyone has their individual thoughts -- well, everyone that cares about this issue -- on Android vs Apple, but it's pretty clear which system will become the standard. It's hard to believe that "for a long time," Ferrari was the only manufacturer with a CarPlay vehicle.

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Pretty Cool

I was looking for something else when I googled this, but this is still pretty cool: