Even as inflation is slowing across the economy, electricity prices remain high as methane gas exports shrink supplies and increase prices of the fossil fuel burned to generate a plurality of American electricity, USA Today reports. The U.S. became the world’s biggest LNG exporter in 2022, “for the first time in history, binding American household energy bills to global calamities,” Mark Wolfe, director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, wrote in a letter to DOE Sec. Jennifer Granholm last fall. And things are about to get worse, as Freeport LNG resumes operations after a massive explosion at the export facility in Texas last summer.
U.S. LNG is in high demand in the short term because Europe — also dependent on methane gas for heat and electricity — is scrambling to limit its reliance on Russian gas while it transitions to cleaner energy sources in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine last February. America’s failure to more quickly transition to clean energy and reduce dependence on fossil fuels is also hurting those who heat their homes with fossil fuels, forcing many to depend on burning wood to keep warm. (USA Today; Freeport LNG: Reuters)