Home heating

One of the side benefits of fracking for oil was the increase in production of natural gas. The price of natural gas used for home heating has increased 2.5% per year since 2000 and that has been the inflation rate. The cost remained steady even though US exports of natural gas have increase 18-fold from $250 million per year to over $100 billion. These exports kept Europe from collapse when they stopped buying gas from Russia. In 2024 Europe purchased 45% of its natural gas from the USA. Even with these imports the cost of natural gas in Europe remains high at $12.30 per MMBtu’s vs US cost of $2.20 per MMBtu’s. To give some perspective the average cost for home heating in MN is $650 per year and if they had to pay European cost it would be $3,693. This is a $3,000 per year difference which is no small item for most home owners.