by Laura Conaway

If you heat your home with natural gas, you can expect lower rates this winter and next — but not for the best of reasons.

Reuters reports:

Record-high inventories and prospects for a slow economic recovery again forced energy analysts to scale back their forecasts for U.S. natural gas prices this year and next year despite a steep slide in drilling that should eventually tighten supplies.

"We have a rather deep economic recession, and the industrial sector has taken quite a hit. There's no way productive capacity can turn around that quickly to rebalance the market," said Kevin Petak, vice president at the consultanting firm ICF International in Virginia.

Prices over the first six months of the year are roughly 57 percent lower than the record highs from the first half of 2008 — largely because of the steep drop in industrial demand. While you're opening lower home heating bills, U.S. manufacturers are wrestling with how they'll keep the doors open. It's good for you on the day you open the bill, but not so great for the economy in the long haul.