On Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Lead,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm stated that natural gas prices “are high” because “the supplies are not as robust as they have been.” And “this is all coming off,” “a real downturn in the economy due to COVID.”
After discussing gasoline prices, Granholm stated, “Natural gas prices are slightly different. Again, that’s very regional. It’s — what is happening in Europe, natural gas prices are not the global market that oil prices are. So, in the U.S., our natural gas supplies are okay. The prices, though, are high because they’re not as robust, the supplies are not as robust as they have been. So, this is all coming off, as you note in your report, a real downturn in the economy due to COVID. You can’t flip a switch and turn all of those rigs back on. They are coming on, but it’s slow. So, that’s one of the reasons why the prices are high, of course. And on the gasoline/oil side it is a global market, and that’s what we’re seeing. Europe has got it much worse than we do.”
Granholm also touted low-income heating assistance in the American Rescue Plan for “places where natural gas prices are high.”
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