Price of Natural Gas Futures Up 140% Year-over-Year: One More Reason for Inflation to Not Back off Easily

Natural gas accounts for 42% of electricity generation. It’s feedstock for fertilizers. It’s widely used for heating. And 19% was exported in 2024.

By Wolf Richter for WOLF STREET.

The notoriously volatile price of US natural gas futures has been zigzagging higher since mid-2024 and overnight spiked to over $4.80 per million Btu, and currently trades at $4.52 per million Btu, up by 140% from a year ago.

Nearly 43% of electricity in the US was generated by natural-gas-fired power plants in 2024. Natural gas is widely used for heating by residential, commercial, and industrial customers. Fertilizer makers use natural gas as feedstock. Natural gas is used as fuel for city buses, drayage trucks, garbage trucks, etc. And the US has been investing in a massive export boom of natural gas, with exporters taking up 19% of US production last year.

For the past 20 years, it has been drill-baby-drill, and US natural gas production has more than doubled, turning the US into the largest natural gas producer in the world. Overproduction has caused the price of natural gas to collapse repeatedly.

Over the past three decades, natural gas prices spiked to $10 per million Btu and higher, including to over $15 in 2005. Natural gas prices can go wild. And in 1997, natural gas had already been at $4.50.

Power generators, utilities, and fertilizer makers purchase much of their projected needs with long-term contracts, so price changes in the futures market leave their near-term costs largely unaffected. But they might raise their prices anyway, and many have already done so, blaming the higher costs. Regulated utilities will do what regulators let them do.

The CPI for natural gas piped to the homes across the US has risen by 6.4% since August (through January, February CPI will be released on Wednesday) and is up 4.9% year-over-year.

Electricity prices have risen because regulators allow utilities to hike their prices. In California, for example, PG&E’s electricity prices have spiked with multiple price hikes and fee changes, as it passes on the costs of the settlements related to wildfire destruction, the costs of their wildfire mitigation efforts, other costs, and whatever, while its net income surged to $2.5 billion in 2024.

National storage levels are running near the bottom of the five-year range for this time of the year, at 1.76 trillion cubic feet, down from 2.34 trillion cubic feet a year ago, when they were forming the new top of the five-year range.

Forecasts for milder weather indicate that there will be less heating-related demand.

But export demand, both via LNG to the rest of the world and via pipeline to Mexico, is a booming business and rose to 7.7 trillion cubic feet in 2024, using about 19% of US production in 2024.

In January, Trump had lifted the freeze on LNG export permit applications for new LNG export terminals. Biden had paused approvals of permits for new export terminals in order to curtail future growth in demand from LNG exporters that could drive up wholesale prices of natural gas in the US. Since lifting the freeze, the Trump administration has approved four new LNG export projects and extensions of existing projects.

It has become a huge business. And this demand from exporters comes on top of the growth in demand from power generators scrambling to provide electricity to new data centers (for AI and the cloud), which are enormous power hogs, and which are spouting like mushrooms.

Enjoy reading WOLF STREET and want to support it? You can donate. I appreciate it immensely. Click on the mug to find out how:




To subscribe to WOLF STREET...

Enter your email address to receive notifications of new articles by email. It's free.

Join 13.6K other subscribers

  99 comments for “Price of Natural Gas Futures Up 140% Year-over-Year: One More Reason for Inflation to Not Back off Easily

  1. Clykke says:

    On top of an extra 25% for anyone purchasing electricity that has been sourced from Canada. But of course, tariffs don’t impact prices!

    • Nick Kelly says:

      Electricity via hydro costs about half via nat gas. Aluminium uses so much electricity to make aluminium from bauxite ore via the Hall process it has been called ‘frozen electricity’. All the Canuck AL plants are near big hydro electric stations. If you are hell- bent on metal tariffs it would make more sense to tariff steel at 100% and leave AL alone.

      • Nick Kelly says:

        PS: meant 50 % on steel or double the 25% proposed on both metals.

      • Wolf Richter says:

        Clykke

        They’re welcome to purchase electricity from US power generators. your US dollars stay in the US and generate economic activity in the US. That’s what tariffs are for — change the math in favor of US production.

        Nick Kelly

        You STILL don’t get it. Tariffs are designed to change the math of the costs in order to shift production over the longer term to the US, including aluminum production. Get used to it. I have no idea why this is so hard to grasp.

        • Some Guy says:

          But what is the point of having aluminum produced in the US vs in Canada – what good does it do, when Canada has an obvious comparative advantage in producing aluminum. Why not just buy aluminum from Canada and ship Canada something in return?

        • Wolf Richter says:

          Why don’t we shift semiconductor manufacturing to China? What good does it do to manufacture cars or planes or ships or missiles in the US, rather than in China, where it would be cheaper? What good does manufacturing do at all? What good does it do even having a brain when someone else can do the thinking for less?

          “Why not just buy aluminum from Canada and ship Canada something in return?” What is this absolutist bullshit??? Obviously, the US is going to buy some aluminum from Canada. NO ONE said the US would stop buying aluminum from Canada. You people need to chill.

        • Oldguy says:

          You keep saying that, but I look back at Trump’s first term tariffs and they did NOT add significant manufacturing jobs in the US and did not cause other countries to build manufacturing plants here. I agree, tariffs are supposed to work as you describe, but the reality is quite different.

        • Wolf Richter says:

          Oldguy

          Automation, dude. This is the 21st century, if you haven’t noticed. Time to update your knowledge, LOL. It’s been around for many decades, but it’s getting better every day. Machines do most of the work. A new factory will be highly automated, and older factories advance their automation all the time. And so you have fewer jobs, but more highly qualified jobs, including tech jobs. That’s how you manufacture in the US, not with a sweatshop.

          And it takes years, not days, to build a factory and ramp up mass production. So when the tariffs – what was left over after all the lobbying and carveouts – went into effect in late 2018, from that point on, it would take years to plan and build a factory. By early 2020, still in the planning and funding period, there was covid, and everything came to a halt for a while. But then came factory construction boom:

        • MussSyke says:

          “ What good does it do even having a brain when someone else can do the thinking for less?”

          I think that’s how we got here.

        • Tom S. says:

          That construction boom also had a lot to do with the CHIPs act and the infrastructure bill.

        • Wolf Richter says:

          Tom S.,

          The factory construction boom started before the CHIPS Act was passed, and nearly 3 years before the first CHIPS Act money was handed out in late 2024 (to Intel).

          But yes, Trump 1 was the first President ever to try to address the huge trade deficit with his tariffs in 2018. Biden followed in his footsteps, largely leaving the Trump tariffs intact. And then he threw many tens of billions of taxpayer dollars at companies to manufacture in the US, and at consumers to buy US-made EVs with US-made batteries, etc. Trump is now undoing the taxpayer rip-off and putting additional tariffs out there as further incentive to build factories in the US.

          All this takes years, as you can see. These are long-term changes in the US economy that don’t become immediately apparent.

        • Tom S. says:

          Tens of billions? Try trillions.

          Sure the tens of billions of tax revenue generated by tariffs did change the calculus, but it’s easier to lobby an administration than to build factories.

          But really, many domestic manufacturers import raw materials (because in a wealthy country we can export our ecocide), but even still profit margins are single digits. The import taxes are going to hurt profits I agree, but I see it hurting the small guys alot more than the OEMs. Because you have two different time scales, the small guys can’t stomach the losses long enough for the big guys to relocate domestically.

          Maybe the government does know how to tax us into prosperity. My gut says otherwise.

        • Nick Kelly says:

          It is not economically feasible to create primary aluminium from nat gas generated electricity, which is a minimum of double the cost of hydro-electric generation.

        • Wolf Richter says:

          Nick Kelly,

          There are a lot of aggrieved Canadian commenters here — including you. And I understand why you’re aggrieved. And I love you all. But this is the USA, it has two HUGE deficits:

          1. the trade deficit in goods of $1.2 trillion in 2024, (including $63 billion with Canada)

          2. the ballooning fiscal deficit.

          And I have been screaming about both deficits ever since I started this website over a decade ago. They’re HUGE problems.

          Then Trump 1 became the first President ever to try to do something about the trade deficit when he imposed some tariffs in 2018.

          Then Biden followed in Trump’s footsteps and largely kept the tariffs in place. But Biden decided to throw many tens of billions of taxpayer dollars at companies to incentivize them to manufacture in the US.

          Trump 2 doesn’t like this taxpayer rip-off and decides to impose taxes on the gross profit margins of importers (tariffs) instead, to give them an incentive to manufacture in the US.

          In addition, Trump is addressing the fiscal deficit. He is finally taking seriously what I have been screaming about here for over 10 years.

          So you aggrieved Canadians need to say: “We hate these tariffs because they hurt us Canadians.” And I respect that, and I agree with that. Those tariffs might hurt you Canadians because some of the Canadian production will shift to the US.

          But the tariffs don’t hurt the US because production shifting to the US from foreign countries doesn’t hurt the US but is one of the best economic moves ever, given our huge goods trade deficit.

          So if you aggrieved Canadian keep trolling this site with BS about how tariffs hurt the US, I will put you on my “aggrieved Canadians list,” with a lot of love, and I’m going to do some gentle handholding here so that this BS coming out of Canada about how the tariffs hurt the US will stop. Enough is enough. You’re big boys up there, you can handle the tariffs, suck it up.

        • NotHere says:

          Stop trying to normalize Trump’s behavior by ignoring the method in which this trade policy is being implemented. Want a different trade agreement? Negotiate one in good faith. Attacking neighbors by taking tariff legislation out of Congress based on nonsense emergency measures falls into the category of WWPD (what would Putin do)

      • John Seddon says:

        Would be great if hydro electricity generation could be at a constant level, unfortunately Mother Nature produces droughts and floods which do not always meet demand. Like wind turbines and solar generation, if the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine we have to rely on good old coal, oil and gas to meet any shortfall, plus the cost of running back up power generation

  2. Sams says:

    Well, natural gas export will improve the trade balance in favour of the USA.

  3. andy says:

    Wolf, just two stocks (Nvidia and Tesla) lost approx. $2 Trillions in imaginary dollars in under 2 months. Has to be a record of sorts.

    Tesla lost half since I shorted it at $470 (posted here). I declare victory and move on. Still holding Nvidia puts (among few others). Also Eli Lilly.

    • thurd2 says:

      They key word in your comment is “imaginary.” Your profits aren’t real until you sell. Most homeowners, for example, have not grasped this simple concept.

    • Wolf Richter says:

      But TSLA and NVDA are both still up 25% from a year ago, despite the plunge. This whole place is a joke.

      • kurt says:

        lets see where that stock goes when revenue/sales is reported. kind of weird to price a hypergrowth stock with a 120 PE when sales are down 50%… unless of course your faith in pure unbridled corruption is the center of your investing portfolio.

      • Home toad says:

        That’s funny

    • Blake says:

      I feel dumb because I can’t actually short stocks in my retirement , so instead I bought shares of TSLQ (2x inverse) about 6 months ago. Just a small amount, for fun. Well, TESLA is basically back to where it was 6 months ago, yet I’m still missing half my money I put into TSLQ. I don’t get it. There’s some math I don’t understand with this inverse ETF stuff, or it fails to capture the long term trend. Just a daily thing I guess.

      • Wolf Richter says:

        “There’s some math I don’t understand with this inverse ETF stuff…”

        Correct. Never ever buy inverse ETFs except for day-trading purposes. It’s NOT a long-term bet because it will eat itself up regardless of what the stock does. Look at a long-term chart (minimum three years) of any of them. There are other things out there like that. For example, to stay within the topic of this article: UNG, which is a bet that natural gas futures prices will rise, eats itself up at an astounding pace. Natural gas futures prices are up 140% yoy. And UNG is up only 52%. When futures prices plunge 50% over a year, it will plunge 80%. It has been around since 2007 and lost 99.999% or whatever of its value (from reverse-split adjusted $8,000 at the peak early on to $23.83 today. FOR DAY-TRADING ONLY.

        • 91B20 1stCav (AUS) says:

          …love the auto-whatever: ‘reverse-spit’, or in other words, ‘choke’!

          may we all find a better day.

        • phusg says:

          If financial regulators were actually looking out for average retail consumer then it would be impossible to hold inverse ETFs like this for more than a day. Is there any good reason these instruments don’t automatically sell at the end of the trading day?

        • MussSyke says:

          Cool. This is why I remain skeptical of any financial derivative difficult to understand, despite my relatively high intelligence.

          Would love to be spoon fed the math on what it means to “eat itself”.

      • andy says:

        I use short leveraged ETFs like SOXS or NVD (mostly options in those ETFs), but will not make it a long term hold. There are these things called contango and backwardation that will eat away at these ETFs. SQQQ holds better than others, but it will also go down (all else being equal).

        For longer term short your best bet is longer term out-of-money puts (these need to be bought when vix is low and market momentum is up). Once everyone is spooked it’s too late. Puts will also lose time value and most will expire wothless. You sell when you can, not when you want to.

        Then there is cash, and it is king once in a blue moon..

      • sufferinsucatash says:

        The double option stocks that are zooted on meth are not a smart play.

        It doesn’t make you look any smarter to either double your winnings or double your losses on any given day.

        Yeah you could place 2 identical bets on the Miami dolphins but your bookey is coming to collect on Monday no matter what. Why double it?

      • Happy1 says:

        Never ever ever buy something you don’t understand.

  4. thurd2 says:

    As a PG&E customer I note “PG&E Corporation’s CEO, Patricia Poppe, received a total compensation of $17 million for the year to December 2023, which includes a salary of $1.4 million and $11.8 million in stock awards.” While I am basically a capitalist pig, no worker is worth $17 million a year. Utilities are supposed to be highly regulated. They are basically monopolies. Why should customers pay for the settlements of lawsuits due to negligence of management? Take the money out of the compensation of current officers and claw back compensation (with interest) from former officers, the ones who caused the problems. They should be put in jail because of the large number of people they killed because of their negligence. It’s not like we have much of a choice with which utility we use. They are monopolies in most markets.

    • Anthony A. says:

      These corporate guys are paupers compared to some pro sports players.

      • thurd2 says:

        But I don’t have to watch sports or pay to go to a sporting event. I pretty much have to have electricity and, in my place, natural gas. In cold climates, you need them to survive. I guess I am arguing utilities should be nationalized, like the interstates, like the military.

        • ChS says:

          They kinda already are, as you pointed often being monopolies, but they are highly regulated and controlled locally. I doubt a fully nationalized system would be any more efficient. Just another layer of bureaucracy to manage what is often very unique local electrical sources and demands.

        • ChS says:

          BTW, regarding interstates, the Federal government helps to fund construction costs but state and local governments maintain them.

        • 91B20 1stCav (AUS) says:

          …reminds me of the old full-page print ads in ‘Life’ and ‘Look’ extolling the virtues of ‘investor-owned power and light’ companies. Surely the demands of selling those stonks and delivering their dividends to the investors (and, of course adequately-compensating the management that facilitate the process) must come first! (/s).

          More seriously, is the still-unsettled question of how best to provide public infrastructure and access that adequately serves and best-levels a putatively-competitive economic environment?

          may we all find a better day.

        • rojogrande says:

          Chs,

          I disagree with Thurd2’s comment calling for a nationalized utility system. However, utilities often are run by local governments. PG&E is private, hence the massive stock awards given to PG&E’s CEO. The way I see it is there is a basic conflict in the privatization of basic public goods such as water and electricity. The private sector ethos of ever increasing efficiency does not, I think, lend itself to situations where significant considerations need to be paid to the long-term safety and sustainability of the system. Vital services need a level of redundancy that is often viewed as inefficient. There’s an inherent tension between maximizing efficiency and making sure service is available under all but the most extreme conditions.

          Likewise, if management under invests or otherwise mismanages most companies their customers can find other suppliers. The same can’t be said for a utility whose customers are largely captive and can always be charged to pay for management’s mistakes. Management has a huge financial incentive to skimp on investment in the system today to increase short-term “profitability,” in the hopes any issues will be some other manager’s problem in the future. Thirtty years ago I would have fully supported privatizing almost any government service. I’m much less certain of that position today. In an era where management looting companies for their own benefit seems all too common, I’m willing to tolerate all of the inefficiencies that come with the government providing basic services.

        • 91B20 1stCav (AUS) says:

          rojo – fourple-chrck, and so eloquently well-stated!

          may we all find a better day.

      • Gazillion debt says:

        You really think these athletic actors get paid that much as advertised by the msm…Okey dokey…the same msm wh8ch spouts propaganda, corporately owned and who’s mission is to mask reality on a targeted populace…ps…All sporting events are sports entertainment not competition…ask Jimmie the bookie or fanduel

        • Nick Kelly says:

          The stupidest comment today, or maybe ever. You only have to watch ML Baseball for five minutes to see a play that 99 percent of 25 year old players couldn’t begin to make. Have you ever even stood on a full size diamond? Most aren’t full size. Find one and try throwing the ball from home plate to second base. Not the kind of bullet needed to get a base runner out, just to get the ball there at all.

          Weird!

        • 91B20 1stCav (AUS) says:

          …ah, Nick. A good illustration of the results of viewing modern media in the fostering of dissonance in our 21st-century virtual/actual lives, all leavened with that easily-used Dunning-Krueger seasoning. Best-

          may we all find a better day.

      • sufferinsucatash says:

        I’ve always thought their salaries are made up.

        Look how much their house they are living in costs.

        Do the math. And tbh 9/10 sports in the world are predetermined.

        Sorry

    • Louie says:

      A lot of this could be fixed and some kind of fairness coming back by simply bringing back the income tax brackets that existed post WW2 when pretty much everyone except the superrich felt there should be a 90% tax bracket for folks like the mentioned CEO. Congress could fix this easily if, repeat if, they worked for the electorate instead of the super rich.

      • Ben R says:

        The electorate wants less regulation that protects them, and it wants financial benefits for the super rich. Not that Congress would deliver if the electorate wanted what was in their best interest.

      • Miatadon says:

        I agree, but the right-wing message has been broadcast so strongly for so many years now, that too many Americans think that our oligarchs are heroes and that their hoarded billions should not be taxed.

    • The Squeezed says:

      It’s a disgrace. Illinois is racing to catch up with California in corruption—no small feat. The Feds just busted the latest collusion between our government and an electric utility, but those shady laws they cooked up? Still standing.

  5. Big Richard says:

    Wolf may not say it, but I will – we are being
    F***ed on all fronts. This is all-out ‘wore’.
    140% in ONE friggin year…are you kidding me?
    Nothing justifies a 140% increase in one year. This is intentional! It’s to squish the middle class.

  6. Golden Dragon says:

    Just wait until the domestic US natural gas price starts hitting the price people in other countries have to pay. Some countries pay anywhere from 3 to 5 times as much for residential natural gas

    Bet you that people will be moaning about shutting all those coal fired generators….

  7. Oldguy says:

    Stocks going down hard. Didn’t we use to have a PPT, plunge protection team? If so, they must be getting calls from current administration.

    • Wolf Richter says:

      The entire PPT, who were all working from home, was fired by some kid at DOGE in January.

      • Nick Kelly says:

        lol, literally

      • Swamp Creature says:

        I found out that the kid at DOGE, who is doing all the firing, is a 19 old high school dropout, who has the nickname “Big Balls” .

        Interesting times

        • Callisto says:

          You guys really do not understand these “kids” who work for DOGE. These folks are most definitely on the spectrum with super genius level IQs in hacking, coding, numbers, patterns, etc. Musk hired them for doing good, not evil. So here is the nerd version of what Elon Musk is doing in the Marvel comic multiverse.

          So, think of Elon as Callisto codename White Knight the leader of the Morlocks. But Callisto also has the power of Caliban who can sense mutants and bring them together. Elon has the power to find spectrum autistic people and to bring together for doing “good”. The folks could easily do “bad” and become very wealthy. Elon gave them a choice, “what if money wasn’t the issue anymore? Are you willing to do good to help people and the USA?” So, turning potential villains into super heroes with unlimited money and power to do good. Of course, I am sure that Elon would rather be Professor X of the X-Men than a stinky sewer dweller like Callisto, but I like the rogue-ish element.

        • Wolf Richter says:

          Government is now reduced to a video game 🤣 Oh Elon!

        • Ben R says:

          Big Balls… he was the one who was fired from an internship for leaking classified information to a rival, right? What could go wrong!

        • vvp says:

          Just wild Musk fan fiction in order to avoid the reality of slashing cancer research funding so the US government has more money to buy up bitcoins.

    • Louie says:

      There is a plunge protection team but it is not who you think it is. The real PPT is the millions of 401K/IRA owners who buy a certain amount of stocks every payday and that will continue on for pretty much ever. The other part of this team is the private equity folks who buy up public corps and take them private thus reducing the number of publicly traded companies.

      • Swamp Creature says:

        Louie

        “The real PPT is the millions of 401K/IRA owners who buy a certain amount of stocks every payday”

        By the time Musk gets through with them, they may not have any job nor any money to put into their 401K/IRAs. Worse yet, they may have to raid their 401K and pay a penalty just to pay their mortgage or rent.

      • The Squeezed says:

        I’ve said it before, and now in 2025, it’s on steroids. Secure Act 2.0 has flooded retirement funds with more people than ever, most auto-enrolled into broad index funds. Expect a new market high.

    • Swamp Creature says:

      The PPT guru, former treasury secretary Paulsen, has now retired and is a full time bird watcher.

      • Walter says:

        “Bird Watcher”. Yeah, right! 🤪🤪🤪
        The only birds he’s probably watching are young chicks.

  8. Swamp Creature says:

    I miss the days my gas meter was broken. I was billed $13.50 for 3 years, even though my actual bills were much higher. After they fixed the meter I am now getting billed the full value for my gas usage. The recent bill was $270 because of the cold January here in the east coast, and the gas price increases. I want those old days with the broken meter back. I want free stuff.

    • Harvey Mushman says:

      I want my MTV

      • James says:

        Well……,a good wood stove and self siphon water heating system can help at least cut the bills if not get rid of them,tough in many areas but you have a bit of land can be done,a lot of great how to solar siphon heat articles out there.

    • Nick Kelly says:

      During the illegal grow- show era, a lot of electric meter tampering went on. Problem: if hydro puts their portable meter on the line and no match…lo! proof a theft is happening! So now cops can enter.
      Busted.
      This happened on Gabriola Island nearby. Charges were relatively lenient: lots of legal bills. But Hydro comes round and snips their line. ‘But what do we do they wail’ ? Answer: ‘get a generator. That’s what we do’

      Year later dust settled, they are hooked back up. Then comes a knock at the door. Guess who? Revenue Canada. Income is income.

    • Swamp Creature says:

      Some dude who was doing plumbing work for my neighbor across the street approached me with an offer to get free Cable TV. He said he could “steal” the cable for free from the Xfinity (Comcast) line. He wanted a commission. He told me “everyone does it” . I told him to “GET LOST”. I like free stuff but this was over the line.

      • VintageVNvet says:

        “FREE stuff” seldom is. Stolen stuff frequently comes with SO much baggage that it ends up just as costly as buying retail.
        SO much ”dis and mis information” goes around and comes around and suckers STILL bite and are reeled in.
        APPARENTLY each and every day from what I read.
        EDUCATION,,, ”REAL LIFE” EDUCATION for every one, child or adult seems to be the only long term solution..
        EVERY state and local ”education bureaucracy” that does NOT focus on real education, NOT propaganda, should be abolished ASAP.
        TEACH kids, AND adults, HOW TO THINK,,,,,,,
        NOT WHAT to think!!!

  9. vvp says:

    Trump is going to cancel LNG permits to get natural gas prices lower.

    • Wolf Richter says:

      That would be funny, wouldn’t it? Just like they stopped refilling the SPR when they took over, though Trump had promised during the campaign that he’d refill it asap.

      • vvp says:

        Most O&G people are still in denial because they bought into “drill baby drill”. It’s kind of sad.

      • AverageCommenter says:

        He never revealed his tax returns. But he said “I will release them when the IRS audit is over”. Just says whatever, I would have more respect for him if he said there is no Constitutional requirement nor any law on the books that requires a candidate for the Presidency to publicly release taxes.

  10. MalcolmM says:

    The largest player in my admittedly niche hobby (Extreme Flight – remote control airplanes) just announced at 15% “temporary” (as long as tariffs last) price increase on all their stock. So much for the exporters absorbing tariffs. Evaluating tariffs based on markups on t-shirts is, ah… misguided.

    Now in Canada we would have to pay this 15%, then at least 40% exchange, then 25% Canadian tariff (still in place) then 12% tax, so final bill is about double. Yes, we are overtaxed here. Our only solution, either buy from other companies out of China or Europe, no one will pay double for a luxury good.

    • Wolf Richter says:

      Announced price increases don’t count. It’s what people ACTUALLY PAY when they buy that matters for inflation. Inflation is figured on prices PAID, not on sticker prices. So if no one buys at these inflated prices, or buys somewhere else at lower prices, then it’s just an imaginary price increase. And then the company will roll it back, all of it or some of it because it wants to stay in business. You’re regurgitating is the same bullshit the ignorant media keep spreading.

  11. Swamp Creature says:

    A little off topic, but today we did an appraisal in DC of a basement unit of a 3 unit condo. The entrance was below street grade and was hidden from sight. The Realtor got there 5 minutes after we got there. At the entrance was evidence that some hooker did a trick right there in front of the front door. Expensive shoes, tampons, rubbers etc were left there. Can you imagine paying $500,000 for a condo right where prostitutes were carrying out their business. The female realtor who met us and ourselves were laughing our a$ses off.

  12. Propheticus says:

    First chart title: “…since 1994.” Chart only goes back to 2021.

  13. Florian says:

    Are prices in general when shown in articles like this adjusted for inflation? Reason I ask early 90s it’s roughly 2 bucks, now just over 4 bucks. No idea what cpi would have been but if those numbers are nominal the difference is minuscule over 30 years….
    Cheers flo

    • Wolf Richter says:

      Prices of natural gas are not adjusted for inflation. As I said in the article — you need to read more than just the first two paragraphs; in fact, you need to look at the second chart — the price of $4.50 had already been seen in 1997. And the all-time high was in 2005 of over $15. All this is shown in the second chart. Thanks to fracking, the US has relatively cheap natural gas. Same with gasoline.

  14. AverageCommenter says:

    Inflation is going to go somewhere, it’s always finding places to go. It went into stocks and inflated market capitalizations. It has inflated the prices of real estate and the price of eggs. Now it is finding a home with natural gas. Not a surprise at all

    • SoCalBeachDude says:

      What is happening with natural gas is not inflation, but rather just manic speculation in the commodities futures markets.

  15. Spencer says:

    A fall in our exchange rate will not correct our trade deficit problem. The only solution is to sell higher quantities of higher quality, and lower unit costs of production, relative to our trading partners. The Chinese first did this with cheap labor. Looking to the future the Chinese will ultimately replace their labor advantage with a machine tool advantage. We need much more gov’t incentivized investment in AI and robots.

  16. SoCalBeachDude says:

    DM: Trump drops new tariff bombshell as Canada threatens to ‘shut off electricity completely’ to three US states

    Ontario Premier Doug Ford followed through on a promise to put a 25% tariff on Canadian electricity to Michigan , New York and Minnesota on Monday. Ford, who runs Canada ‘s most populous province, has even threatened to ‘shut the electricity off completely’ if America continues to ‘escalate.’ Trump has shot back, mocking Ford’s plan and saying that his promise of reciprocal tariffs will render anything Ontario does useless.

  17. Mike R. says:

    Natural gas production in the US has peaked. It will only get more expensive and less available from here on out. On top of that, our brilliant government has decided to increase LNG exports signficantly. Oh well, I guess the ports and LNG facilities can be used for gas coming from other countries; something we will see in our lifetimes for sure.

    Last time I made a similar comment, Mr. Wolf dismissed it outright. I challenge Mr. Wolf to do some research on the state of US fracking production.

    • Wolf Richter says:

      People have posted the same production-has-peaked nonsense for 10 years. After a while, it’s just funny.

      “I challenge Mr. Wolf to do some research on the state of US fracking production.”

      So here we go:

  18. danf51 says:

    Back to burning coal ?

    It will be interesting to see how the pilot Molten Sodium Nuclear plant under construction at a soon to be mothballed coal burning facility in Kemmerer Wyoming will work out.

    The explosion of LNG exports out of the US will perhaps turn out to be another example of misallocation of capital since it comes from creating an artificial and unsustainable market in Europe through the expediency of attacking one of our allies (vassals?) critical infrastructure

  19. rjs says:

    can’t put my finger on it, but about a year ago there was a piece noting 40 North American LNG plants at some stage of planning or construction…most of those planned for Mexico would rely on cross border pipeline flows…to supply those would require more than doubling US production. i don’t think that’s doable..

Comments are closed.