Because of increases in the price of oil and because of government policies promoting energy conservation, the use of oil to heat homes fell by 40 percent from 1970 to the present, and many homeowners switched to natural gas for heating. ███████ █████████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ █████████ ██ ██████████ █ ███████████ ██████ ████ ██ ███ ██ ███ ████ ██████ ██ █████████
The author claims that homeowners are generally unlikely to switch back to oil heating soon after having switched to natural gas due to its lower cost. Why? Because switching to gas in the first place required investing in new equipment, and presumably homeowners won’t want to duplicate that investment.
The author assumes that the amount saved by continuing to use gas and not having to buy new oil-compatible equipment outweighs any savings from switching back to oil. In other words, equipment and oil have not gotten so much cheaper (and that gas hasn’t gotten so costly) that it would be worth switching again.
The prediction that ends the ███████ █████ ██ ████ █████████ ██████ ████ ████████ ██ ██ ████ ████ ████ ██ ███ ████ ███ █████
the price of ███████ ███ ██ ████ █████ ███ ████████ █████████ █████ ███ ████ ██ █████████ ██ ████ █████ ████ ███████ ███ ███ ██████ ███████
the price of ████ ███████ ███ ███ ████████ █████████ █████ ███ ████ ██ █████████ ██ ████ █████ ████ ███████ ███ ███ █████ ███████
the cost of █████████ ██ ████ █████ ████ ███████ ███ ███ ██████ ████████ █████ ███ █████ ██ ████ ███████ ███ ███ ██████ ██ ████ ██████
the cost of █████████ ██ ████ █████ ████ ███ ███ ██████ ████████ █████ ███ █████ ██ ███████ ████ ███ ███ ██████ █████ ███ █████ ██ ███████ ████ ███████ ███
the use of ███ ██ ████ █████ ███ █████████ ██ ████████ █████ ███ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ███ ██████ ██ ████ ██████