How would you feel if you opened up your natural gas bill to find that it was 3x as high as last year?

As Californians, because they probably know the answer.

How about 8x higher than last year?

Again, ask a Californian. Because they may know the answer.

But if you do, slowly back away just in case they bare their teeth and jump at you with rage in their eyes.

When he opened the envelope from Long Beach’s utility department, he couldn’t believe the total: $907.13, nearly eight times higher than his bill at the same time last year.”It made me want to puke,” said Eldridge, 48, a pastor.

Household budgets in the Golden State, already stretched thin as prices soar for everything from rent to eggs, are being pummeled by monster gas bills.

Southern California Gas Co. and Pacific Gas & Electric began warning customers in January that they would see higher bills after the wholesale price of natural gas hit record highs. But reality didn’t sink in for many customers until their bills started arriving later in the month.

Ouch.

Prices have skyrocketed in California in a way that they haven’t in most places, because…California. Natural gas prices for some customers are more than 4 times what they were last year, although it varies around the state. People in other states are paying more, but nothing like this.

SoCalGas said the average bill in January for its 21.8 million customers was about $300, more than twice the average of January 2022 — and homeowners with pools or many rooms to heat have reported being charged north of $2,000. PG&E has projected that bills in central and Northern California will be 32% higher this winter.

Both utilities say they don’t profit from higher bills because the cost of buying the gas is passed on to consumers, with no markup.

You can be sure that Governor Newsom will be pointing fingers at the utilities–in fact, he already is, calling for an investigation into the rising bills. But it isn’t greedy utilities or gas providers, it is a terrible energy policy that is causing disaster for people’s pocketbooks. California imports most of its natural gas (although it needn’t; it can produce a lot of energy if Newsom weren’t so anti-fossil fuel extraction), and it’s difficult to get the gas to market there.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has called for a federal investigation into the wholesale price of natural gas, asking the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to look into “whether market manipulation, anti-competitive behavior or other anomalous activities are driving these ongoing elevated prices” in the West.

Because of course he did. Gavin Newsom is a tool. Could it possibly be that the war on fossil fuels–and particularly on natural gas of late–might have something to do with this?

Naah. It’s gotta be price gouging. Surely.

California has fossil fuel resources; they just don’t extract them.

Hence natural gas prices there are more than 3x what they are for me, in Minnesota. Our governor is a greenie too, but he would be lynched if our gas prices skyrocketed like this. The L.A. Times tells the stories of some Californians feeling the crunch.

Mares said he got frustrated after reading the fine print of his bill, which said he was being charged $3.45 per therm (one unit of natural gas), up from 84 cents at the same time last year.

Mares paid the bill, since he “didn’t really have a choice,” he said. But to save money, he has started taking public transit or riding his bicycle for trips shorter than three miles and is eyeing other trims to his budget, including getting rid of cable TV.

Eldridge, the Long Beach resident with the bill of more than $900, said he and his wife have invested in solar panels to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels. They’ve switched out their gas-powered furnace and dryer for electric models.

His bill, eight times higher than last January’s, was an unwelcome reminder that his household is more reliant on gas than he would prefer, he said. He suspects the culprit is the whirlpool spa, which they run a few times a week in the winter.

This poor guy Mares is paying $3.45 per therm; in Minnesota, the cost is 1/3rd of that. Thank God. Temperatures routinely go below zero in my neck of the woods. From my service provider:

One customer of SoCal Gas called the company about his outrageous gas bill and was told he should check the commodities markets to predict his upcoming bills.

Nice to know.

Doug Doering, 61, of Santa Cruz knew it would cost him to heat the outdoor pool at his Palm Springs vacation home but decided to bite the bullet. Last winter, his monthly bill was about $980, a cost he thought he could handle. After all, he thought, what’s the point of a 25,000-gallon pool if you don’t swim in it?

Less than a week before his billing cycle closed, he received a warning from SoCalGas that rates were spiking. By then, the pool had been heated for more than a week. When the bill arrived, it was $2,770.

Doering called customer service to see if there had been a mistake. He said a SoCalGas representative explained that natural gas costs had soared in the West, then said he could predict the amount of his bill by checking the commodities market.

“Yeah, right, like we all have time for that,” Doering responded.

Of course, this isn’t all Gavin Newsom’s fault. You can blame Joe Biden as well since his administration has declared war on natural gas and the infrastructure needed to move it around. Without adequate pipelines getting the gas to market–even when it is available–is impossible. That’s why California is facing such a crunch, and why prices vary so much around that state.

Joe Biden has criticized fossil fuel companies for not investing enough, but he has also suggested that fossil fuels have only 10 years or so of use in the US (a fantasy, of course). Nobody is going to invest trillions of dollars without having a prayer of a chance of getting a return.

Biden has made his policy clear: fossil fuels are on the way out. He kills pipelines, stands in the way of investment, and then complains when prices increase. It’s not his fault. It is greedy capitalists!

The complaints are for show. Newsom and Biden and all the greens are trying to kill off fossil fuels, and are happy to kill off the middle class while they are at it.

Why? Go back to the story of Mr. Mares: “Mares paid the bill, since he “didn’t really have a choice,” he said. But to save money, he has started taking public transit or riding his bicycle for trips shorter than three miles and is eyeing other trims to his budget, including getting rid of cable TV.”

Isn’t that exactly what the Left wants? High gas prices–natural and gasoline–force people to live exactly how they want us to: in those “15-minute cities.”

Connect the dots.