TIME FOR A SECOND WAR OF INDEPENDENCE::

The primary reason for the spike is our reliance on fossil fuels. Specifically, natural gas.

Natural gas accounts for about 38% of the country's electricity, though here in New England, it's more like 53%. And the price of our main source of energy is anything but stable.

Gas prices are extremely volatile

Historically, New England burned oil and coal for power, but we switched many of our plants over to natural gas after the "fracking boom" in the early 2000s. Supply was high and prices were cheap, which was good for consumers, but not sustainable, said Dennis Wamsted, an analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.

Indeed, prices started to rise after the U.S. began turning its glut of natural gas into liquefied natural gas (LNG) and exporting it.

The COVID pandemic in 2020 temporarily disrupted this trend; the global economy came to a halt and many oil and gas operations curtailed production. But as demand for fossil fuels began to rebound in 2021, supplies haven't recovered as quickly. This has meant steadily rising prices. Add in some record-setting cold temperatures in many parts of the country this past winter, and prices have gone up even more.

"And then Russia invaded Ukraine and the world changed," said Dan Dolan, president of the New England Power Generators Association. "We are now facing the largest international energy crisis of my lifetime. [We're] seeing enormous volatility across all the energy commodities, and in particular, natural gas and oil."

Russia is the second-largest producer and the largest exporter of natural gas in the world, and its invasion of Ukraine in late February sent global energy prices into a frenzy. In fact, natural gas experienced its biggest 30-day price swing of the last two decades after the war began.

There's another important factor that helps explain why New England pays a lot for natural gas. We simply have a hard time getting it. We don't sit on top of any fossil fuel reserves and we are at the end of the gas pipeline system, which means we can't easily bring in more when demand calls for it.

"We just have a physical constraint of how much gas we can deliver through the pipeline system to New England," said Ben Butterworth, director of climate, energy & equity analysis at the Acadia Center.

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