Hedging Gas Consumption

I thought of this over the summer and discussed it with a couple of friends. Here's a post SeekingAlpha that goes into the details of a similar idea. The only big problem with the idea as presented is exactly what happened in the last 2 1/2 years. Crude oil made a round-trip from $70 up to $150 and is now back down to $70! If you bought USO 2 1/2 years ago and just sat on it, you are breaking even. In the meantime you have spent a boatload of money on gas at much higher prices! What you need to do to truly hedge your gas-bill is buy USO worth a whole year's consumption and then keep selling off shares as you fill up the car. That's the only way to truly get the full benefit out of this scheme. Of course this adds transaction costs into the mix - commission to sell and capital gains taxes.

There is a natural gas ETF out there as well: UNG. That could be useful for hedging your home heating bills.

I wonder if this hedging idea could make sense for a group of people. You know, create a partnership and buy a big chunk of USO and/or UNG at the beginning of the year and keep selling off shares at set intervals.