For a decade natural gas has been the fuel to love. It's clean, plentiful and found close to home. Most important, it was cheap. At the very least, they're raking in billions of dollars.
Supplies remain tight.
If the summer is a hot one, prices could again soar. Despite greater risks of occasional price spikes, MacAvoy argues, a free market provides lower prices and adequate supplies in the long run. President Bush's energy plan, expected to be unveiled next month, will stress expanding natural gas production and building new pipelines, but experts agree it will be years before those efforts significantly influence the gas market. Meanwhile, demand for the fuel will continue to rise. It may be some time, if it happens at all, before prices again will be as low as they were over a 15-year period covering the late 1980s and all of the 1990s, energy economists say.