"It's a shame about those high oil prices," you might say to yourself, "but good thing my house is heated with natural gas!"

Well, my friend, I'm sorry to say that the March bill is about to show up in your mailbox and it's probably gonna be a bit of a shock:

U.S. natural gas prices surged to the highest level in more than 13 years Monday as Russia's war on Ukraine causes a global energy crunch and as forecasts called for cooler spring temperatures.

Futures jumped 10% to trade as high as $8.05 per million British thermal units, the highest since September 2008. The jump builds on recent strength, with natural gas coming off five straight positive weeks.

Prices later retreated slightly, with the contract ending the day 7.12% higher at $7.82.

Natural gas is one of the great fuel sources, right up there with oil: It's clean, easily transportable, reliable, and burns well. Plus, we're sitting on an ocean of the stuff:

That stuff needs to get out of the ground, pronto.

I understand environmentally minded liberals have a problem with cheap, abundant fossil fuel—particularly if it's obtained by fracking, a process which they seem to believe is tantamount to firing off a nuclear weapon—but unless you want the modern economy to flip on its back and die (along with a bunch of people), you need cheap, abundant fossil fuel. That's just where we are right now.

In summary: Get that gas out of that shale pronto!

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