Title: Do Americans consume too little natural gas?
Description: "This paper measures the extent to which prices exceed marginal costs in the U.S.  natural gas distribution market during the period 1991-2007.  We find large departures from marginal cost pricing in all 50 states, with residential and commercial customers facing average markups of over 40%.  Based on conservative estimates of the price elasticity of demand these distortions impose hundreds of millions of dollars of annual welfare loss.  Moreover, current price schedules are an important pre-existing distortion which should be taken into account when evaluating carbon taxes and other policies aimed at addressing external costs"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.