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Thursday, December 08, 2005

Natural gas at record high

From Bloomberg:
Natural gas for January delivery jumped $1.294, or 9.5 percent, to close at a record $14.994 per million British thermal units in New York. Futures touched $15.10, an all-time intraday high. Prices have more than doubled in the past year.

Heating oil for January delivery jumped 4.66 cents, or 2.7 percent, to close at $1.7832 a gallon in New York. Heating oil reached a record $2.21 on Sept. 1. Futures have gained 42 percent in the past year.
It was below zero (F) here in Ann Arbor last night. Very cold for December.

Oil's back over $60 a barrel, as well. I've also noticed huge rises in electricity spot prices lately on the Bloomberg site, but I can't find any news stories or charts to back that up. But I'm pretty sure the prices for a megawatt-hour were down around $85 just a couple of weeks ago, and now they're up around $135. That may be related somewhat to the rise in oil and natural gas, although I think coal is still the main source for electricity in this country, with nuclear and hydro being as significant as oil or gas. So the impact of those price rises shouldn't be that drastic. But if electicity has gone up over 50% in the past few weeks, why no news stories?

Strangely, I've searched all over for info on the electricity spot prices that Bloomberg tracks, and I can't find them listed anywhere else. No quotes, no charts, no stories--NY Times, CBS Marketwatch, E-Trade, Yahoo, etc. Googling. Nothing.