New England following Europe's path to high energy prices

[dan_s]

How the Ukraine war could make New Englanders shiver. E&E News.
As coal, oil and nuclear power plants have retired en masse in recent years, New England has turned to liquefied natural gas to keep the lights on and energy prices low. But with Europe scrambling to offset its use of Russian gas by importing more LNG, the region could find itself facing skyrocketing gas prices next winter. The dynamic illustrates New England’s mounting reliance on natural gas and the halting nature of efforts to green the region’s power supplies. The six New England states, which are served by a common electricity market, have struggled to replace their retired power plants with large-scale renewable projects or new pipelines to serve their existing gas facilities. Now, the region faces skyrocketing gas prices.

Gas prices race back near record highs, but oil tumbles. CNN Business.
Prices at the pump are once again flirting with record highs. That's adding to inflationary headaches for families, the US economy and the White House. The national average for regular gasoline rose to $4.328 a gallon on Monday, according to AAA. That's a fraction of a penny shy of the all-time high of $4.331 set on March 11. Gas prices have climbed 13 cents over the past week and stand well above the recent low of $4.07 a gallon. The recent jump in pump prices may not be done. Gasoline futures settled at record highs on Friday. Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates, told CNN he expects retail prices will climb by another 18 to 20 cents over the next 10 to 14 days, hitting a fresh record of $4.50 a gallon. < Summer Blend gasolines are $0.15 to $0.25 per gallon higher than Winter Blend gasolines that can contain more Butane.

U.S. natural gas prices get caught up in perfect storm. Oil Price.
U.S. natural gas prices have gone from cheap and range-bound to the highest in more than a decade in a matter of weeks. And they may still have higher to go as extra strong local demand combines with soaring exports to Europe. The United States has been exporting as much natural gas as is physically possible, and more than half of this gas has been going to Europe as it scrambles to reduce its dependence on Russian oil, gas, and coal as quickly as it can. Yet higher exports of natural gas have meant lower local supply, and this has naturally pushed prices higher. Now, the weather has joined Europe in doing just that. Reuters noted in a report last week that unusually warm weather in parts of the United States is driving higher than usual demand for natural gas by power utilities as demand for cooling rises.

[Fraser921]

It's even worse than this as Cuomo, the former disgraced Governor of NY, banned all pipelines running from the Marcellus In PA to New England. We have to import LNG from Russia in the winter instead of buying from PA.

Also he has banned drilling in NY

This should be a crime and they should lock up these dopes for malfeasance

[dan_s]

I honestly cannot believe that people in New England keep electing Democrats. We have our share of Wackos in Texas, but so far they haven't taken control. If Texas turns blue, I will be moving to Mexico.

We actually put the party in charge of the country that wanted to defund the police.

For the record, IMO the Republicans are just the "Lesser of two evils".

[Fraser921]

> If Texas turns blue, I will be moving to Mexico.

I will know where to find you... at your happy place!

[mrbill]

Speaking of New England, is there any way New England will have electrical "brownouts" this Summer?

[dan_s]

When Global Warming shows up in New England regular brown outs are likely.