In February 2025 piped utility gas to heat your home, heat your water, and cook with costs 55.7% more than it did on average 2016-2020

 The average price 2016-2020 was $1.0174 per therm.

 

 

In Jan 2025 the average price of utility natural gas is 49% more than the 2017-2020 average

 The average price of utility natural gas was $1.04 per therm 2017-2020.

In Jan 2025 it costs $1.55, 49% more.

Since about 10% of natural gas production is diverted to LNG export for big profits, most of the increase is related to diversion of natural gas from heating to electricity production because of the lunatic policy of retiring massive amounts of coal electric generation capacity.

It makes heating your home much more expensive, and keeping the lights on much more expensive at the same time.

Thanks for nothing, green energy assholes. It's 22 degrees F and snowing in Grand Rapids, MI.

Global coal electric capacity hit 2,175 gigawatts in 2024

China added nearly 31gw of new coal electric capacity in 2024 and India nearly 6gw while the US retired almost 5gw, according to the story:

. . . U.S. exports of coal have been rising steadily to satisfy growing global demand for the world’s dirtiest fossil fuel, even though its domestic consumption has decreased.

On top of that, the world’s coal capacity reached a new record high of nearly 2,175 gigawatts in 2024, data from Global Energy Monitor showed on Feb. 6. Coal capacity is the overall power output that can be generated from coal-fired power plants. ...

More. 

According to Electric Power Annual for 2023 at the US Energy Information Administration, existing US coal electric capacity is down to 193gw, behind natural gas at 572gw and ahead of wind at 148gw. Nuclear is still a distant fourth at 100gw from 93 existing utility-scale generators.

Trump executive order reverses Biden's pause on new approvals of LNG projects

 It is little discussed, but Biden's pause on the new projects was based, in part, on the negative impact on prices paid by consumers because natural gas was being diverted to LNG exports. Reduced domestic supply has led to higher prices paid by consumers:

The current economic and environmental analyses DOE uses to underpin its LNG export authorizations are roughly five years old and no longer adequately account for considerations like potential energy cost increases for American consumers and manufacturers beyond current authorizations or the latest assessment of the impact of greenhouse gas emissions. 

Natural gas diverted to export already reached 10% of production in 2022.

Reported here:

The president reversed the Biden administration’s pause on new liquefied natural gas export facilities. Trump directed the Energy secretary to start reviewing new LNG projects as quickly as possible.     

Natural gas prices have exploded by 210% since Trump was elected in November.

This is just BS from Speaker Mike Johnson about LNG exports and Joe Biden's memory

 Whatever may be said about Joe Biden's memory, he didn't have a memory lapse in this instance as alleged by the Speaker of the US House of Representatives. It's troubling that Mike Johnson would misrepresent this in this way. 

Joe Biden doesn't have a monopoly on "fake shit".

Sir, why did you [President Biden] pause LNG exports to Europe? Like, I don't understand. Liquefied natural gas is in great demand by our allies. Why would you do that? You understand -- we just talked about Ukraine -- you’re fueling Vladimir Putin’s war machine because they’ve got to get their gas from him."

He looks at me, stunned, and says, "I didn’t, I didn’t do that."

I said, "Mr. President, yes, you did. It was an executive order, like, three weeks ago."

He says, "No, I didn’t do that." He’s arguing with me.

-- The Moment Speaker Mike Johnson Knew Biden Wasn't "In Charge" Anymore 

LNG exports to Europe were not paused. And demand in Europe dropped in 2024. Biden signed a temporary pause for pending approvals of LNG exports, not for existing approvals of LNG exports. This and Mike's other comments in the story indicate that he is not exactly reliable on the subject. But he could have easily just looked it up.

Jan 26, 2024:

FACT SHEET: Biden-⁠Harris Administration Announces Temporary Pause on Pending Approvals of Liquefied Natural Gas Exports

Sep 4, 2024:

US LNG export dominance tested as Europe's demand wilts

Meanwhile, Mike Johnson didn't tell anybody about this until now? Seems like a dereliction of duty for the man in line right behind the VP to become president in the event of incapacity or death.

And, oh yeah, US LNG export tanker loads hit a seven-month high in January 2025 at 71, through yesterday:

 

 

 

Cheap gasoline prices were key to the Trump-era "boom" for the bottom half of income earners destroyed by the Great Recession

Reported here in "Inflation-shocked low- and middle-income Americans may not spend normally for years":

“For a very large share of Americans, the bottom 60% are spending more on essentials than before the pandemic,” said Michael Pearce, Oxford Economics deputy chief U.S. economist. “The burden is hardest among the lowest income but also touches middle income. Spending patterns of low-income Americans will take years to recover.” ...

The last time low-income Americans’ discretionary spending fell this much, which was during the Global Financial Crisis of 2007-2008, it took five to 10 years for spending patterns to return to previous levels, he said.

“And the reason was gas prices fell,” Pearce said. Global oil prices fell by about 70% between 2014-16, which pushed pump prices sharply lower and helped low-income Americans catch up.

“It’s harder to see some revolutionary cost saving (like that) on the horizon,” he said. 

          

Harder to see only if we continue with the green energy nonsense.

The opportunities are YUGE for Trump/Vance because ALL energy costs much more now.

It's not just gasoline. Get the government boot off the neck of fossil fuel producers and gasoline will come down, natural gas will come down, and electricity will come down. 

Base energy from coal should be transitioned to nuclear, which works in cold weather and hot weather without fail just like coal, unlike natural gas, wind, and solar, which are fine where appropriate but not as base energy, the energy you must have when you need it when the sun doesn't shine, the wind doesn't blow, and the gas won't flow.

J. D. Vance knows:

 

 

The artificially high cost of energy inputs because of the Biden-Harris green energy ideology continues to make everything more expensive in August 2024

Gasoline was 29% cheaper under Trump on average than it is today: $2.49/gallon vs. $3.52 now.

Using electricity for anything was 23% cheaper under Trump on average than it is today: $0.136/kilowatt-hour vs. $0.177 now.

Heating your home with natural gas was 26% cheaper under Trump on average than it is today: $1.04/therm vs. $1.40 now.

Everyone is needlessly poorer after 3.5 years of this huge, Democrat-imposed impediment to the economy's potential, a gigantic tax hidden in plain sight.

 

Why you pay more for natural gas AND electricity: The utility mark-up of natural gas average prices over Henry Hub spot prices has never been higher than in 2024, 40% of electricity is generated by natural gas in the US, the largest source

 

A record 672% in the first half of 2024

675% in the first quarter of 2024, a new record

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

669% in the second quarter of 2024: "Energy prices are coming down" lol

The rarely uttered but all-important truth: Energy prices lie at the root of all price pressures

Energy-heavy transportation and warehousing operations saw prices fall in the early and final purchasing stages of their business, PPI data showed. That indicates that supply-side pressures are easing, Kurt Rankin, senior economist with PNC Financial Services, wrote Thursday.

“The downward-trending energy PPI pace, which lies at the root of all price pressures in the US economy, implies that the second half of 2024 will see diminishing cost pressures from producers’ own energy bills, as well as the cost of shipping goods to retailers,” Rankin wrote. 

The final two paragraphs, here.

Don't be fooled. High energy prices remain the main drag on the economy.

A presidential administration biased against fossil fuels, which still accounted for 81% of primary energy production in the US in 2022, is shooting itself in the foot when trying to fight inflation and explains the persistence of the problem which most elites predicted would only be transitory.

Gasoline prices remain Obama-like, not Trump-like in the first half of 2024

Natural gas prices remain highly elevated in the first half of 2024 and ticked up again

Electricity in the US has never cost more than under the recent, lunatic Biden administration

 

 

In the first half of 2024, overall prices are up 3.2% year over year on an average basis, and core prices are up 3.6%

 Prices on some important things you use everyday made new record highs.

core inflation

overall inflation

gasoline in the first half of 2024 is still Obama-like under Biden, not Trump-like

the high price of home heating, water heating, cooking, clothes drying ticked up in 1H2024

new high for chuck roast

new high for all purpose flour

fricken chicken came down a half penny: six bucks for a three pound chicken

new high for a loaf of healthy bread

new high for a pound of hamburger

new high for the electricity to keep everything running

The continuing price gouging by US natural gas utilities is astounding

Look at all that daylight between what utilities charge and the gas actually costs.

 

American utilities have used the pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war to price gouge the consumer for natural gas

American utilities have used the pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war to price gouge the consumer. 

Natural gas prices have nosedived 73% since 3Q2022 but utility prices stopped declining a year ago and are down just 14% from peak.

Utility gas actually increased in 4Q2023 and again in 1Q2024.

Look at all that air under the red line.  First time that's happened in decades.

People should be MAKING A STINK!

 

Norway, Europe's most anti-semitic country, is also its most fascist economy, centered in dem ebil fossil fuels lol

 Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, was established in the 1990s to invest the surplus revenues of the country’s oil and gas sector. To date, the fund has put money in more than 8,500 companies in 70 countries around the world.

More.

Trump promised to build the wall, Biden promised to end fossil fuel lolz

 

Contact your utility commission and complain about natural gas and electricity prices not coming down

 Utilities Get an Inflation Shock

Electricity and gas providers are encountering a pushback on rate increases:

 

Utilities get to pass through fuel prices, which means customers have been bearing the burden of higher natural-gas prices that surged following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. On average, monthly electricity prices rose 13% in 2022 from a year earlier and 6% in the first 11 months of 2023, according to data from the Labor Department. ... Utility commissioners are either appointed by elected officials or elected themselves, which means they are sensitive to the financial pressures that ratepayers face. ... utilities were quick to ask for an increase on the allowed return on equity when market measures of capital cost rose yet slow to adjust rates when those measures declined.     

 

Has the natural gas portion of your utility bill dropped 60% like the price of natural gas in 2023 from 2022? Mine sure as hell has not.

Here are the average prices per year for Henry Hub natural gas:

2015: 2.62

2016: 2.52

2017: 2.99

2018: 3.15

2019: 2.56

2020: 2.03

2021: 3.89 +91.6%

2022: 6.45 +65.8%

2023: 2.53 -60.7%

That 92% jump in 2021 had nothing to do with Ukraine.

We're being gouged for green energy tomfoolery.

 

COMPLAIN, not to the utility, but to the utility commission. It's the only way.

 

In Michigan, go to:

 

https://www.michigan.gov/mpsc

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sultan al Jaber keeps COP28 lunatics from taking the world back to the stone age lolz

 Anger and frustration as COP28 draft text omits fossil fuel phaseout

The burning of coal, oil and gas accounts for more than three-quarters of global greenhouse gas emissions. It is for this reason that so many had pushed for the COP28 outcome to show that “we are truly at the beginning of the end of the fossil fuel era.”

However, COP28 President Sultan al Jaber faced a backlash last week when he claimed there was “no science” behind calls for a phase-out of fossil fuels, and that such a move would not allow sustainable development “unless you want to take the world back into caves.”

They always leave out that 82% of global energy comes from coal, oil, and gas.

You can't just wave a magic wand and make it all go away without committing global murder in the process.

 

Core pce inflation, which excludes food and energy measures, is still high at 3.5% year over year in October 2023, down 0.2 points from September or 5.4%

 Price increases at 3.5% instead of 3.7% year over year. This level remains outside of most people's experience since the late 1990s.

The broad measure fell to 3.0% from 3.4%. The energy goods and services component yoy has been negative, that is deflationary, for eight months in a row. The food component was up 2.0% year over year in October but is now in its tenth month of declines out of twelve on a year over year measure monthly.

Declining energy input costs have been the story behind declining inflation measures overall, primarily natural gas which is twice as important to the U.S. economy as gasoline on a BTU basis.

The Biden administration's green energy policy is at war with the reason for the happy circumstance of declining inflation measures it finds itself in, and Biden could be sailing to re-election if he were instead supporting fossil fuel production, which would slay the inflation dragon dead.

In October 2023 it still costs 33.26% more to heat your home with natural gas than it did on average for the four years 2017-2020

 

Dim bulb Jonathan Martin says Joe should heave Bidenomics into the dumpster just as broad inflation tanks from 3.7% yoy in September to 3.2% yoy in October

Perhaps the most overwhelming economic messaging advice I picked up from Democrats was for him to heave “Bidenomics” into the dumpster. Attempting to make voters believe something they don’t is folly. Attaching your name to that strategy borders on masochistic.

Here’s How Biden Can Turn It Around

Joe would be well on his way to re-election right now if he weren't shooting himself in the foot with his stupid green energy policies, which are keeping inflation from coming down harder than it already is.

That's what needs to go in the dumpster.

The gas and electric utility Consumers Energy here in Michigan is price gouging under Green Energy Joe, yours probably is too

Compared to November 2020, my new budget plan payment for combined natural gas and electric for the coming winter will be 42% higher than it was three years ago, despite the fact that natural gas prices have normalized almost to the penny.

Electricity is up 25% since Green Energy Joe got elected and isn't coming down, but that can't account for it since I consume far less electricity than natural gas on an average basis. More than 65% of my energy consumption in kWh is from natural gas in the last year, as it is every year, less than 35% is from electricity.

A 25% increase to 35% of my old bill would result in a total payment today less than 9% higher. Instead it's 42% higher.

Remember that the utility uses natural gas to generate the electricity, too, and it's paying normal prices today for the gas, not the inflated prices of the recent past.

There's no excuse for the extra cost I'm paying.

The utility is price gouging.