Staff Reports
In spite of the fact that gas prices have been falling steadily over the past few weeks, having dropped from summer highs, the Congressional Budget Office predicts that natural gas prices would rise as a result of the recently enacted Inflation Reduction Act.
The national average price of a gallon of regular gasoline is $3.78 as of this writing, down from $4.08 a month ago and much lower than earlier this summer when prices reached $5 per gallon, as reported by AAA. In the previous week, there has been a reduction in cost of around one nickel.
Biden made a point to highlight the price reductions that occurred over the Labor Day weekend, which is a popular time for Americans to vacation.
Biden was quoted as saying, Folks, gas costs are continuing to plummet like they have every day this summer. Since we last checked on this topic 82 days ago, prices had decreased by more than 1.20 dollars per gallon.
However, the current average is considerably more than the average price of $3.19 a gallon that was paid during the same time period in the previous year.
The Republican Party has been very critical of the administration of Vice President Joe Biden, pointing out that prices are significantly higher now than they were when he took office and arguing that the recent "spending spree" of trillions of dollars spread across multiple bills will lead to higher prices as a result of inflation.
The rate of inflation currently stands at its highest level in more than forty years.
It implies that ordinary Americans, who are already finding it difficult to afford their grocery bills and their energy bills, will be compelled to pay more, according to a statement released by the U.S. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican from Washington state, stated.
In addition, Republican lawmakers objected to a natural gas methane emissions price that was included in the Inflation Reduction Act that was recently passed, claiming that the expenses of this fee will be passed on to customers in the form of higher energy bills.
They referred to an analysis of the Inflation Reduction Act that was conducted by the Congressional Budget Office. According to this analysis, the fee is treated as a tax, and it is said that those cost increases are passed down to customers of natural gas in the form of increased prices.
According to the CBO analysis, a charge for methane emissions leads to a reduction in the amount of methane that is emitted while also leading to a rise in the cost of generating natural gas, which leads to an increase in the price of natural gas and a reduction in its overall output.
The cost of abatement rises dramatically once companies have exhausted low-cost methods for lowering methane emissions, according to studies of the oil and gas industry.
End users of natural gas are not nearly as sensitive to rises in price as the natural gas industry's providers are.
The research also stated that it is anticipated that a significant portion of the cost associated with abatement will be passed on to end users in the form of a price hike. This is due to the fact that end users of natural gas are not as sensitive to price increases as its providers are.
Those who pay greater markups for natural gas, such as residential users, will see a smaller percentage increase in their total bill than those who pay lower markups, such as companies producing electric power, according to the research.
The preceding is a summary of an article that originally appeared on Headline USA.
