US Gas Crisis Hits Critical Levels Amid Perfect Storm of Supply Shortages
In October 2030, the US is facing its third great natural gas crisis in eight years. The vulnerabilities that triggered it seem painfully obvious now.
The crisis began when Russia's invasion of Ukraine cut off Europe from two-fifths of its gas in 2022, but importers were reassured that the Persian Gulf and the US had plenty to spare.
When a war with Iran knocked out 20 percent of the global liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply, the US' booming fossil-fuel industry promised to fill the gap. However, growth in shale output has been faltering due to extreme weather and the power sector's crippling by former US President Donald Trump's war on clean energy.
Frontier AI labs are sucking up fossil fuels to power data centers, while LNG terminals allow foreign buyers to compete with the US at rock-bottom prices. As a result, storage tanks are at record lows amid a polar vortex cold snap in February, driving US benchmark Henry Hub prices above $10 per million British thermal units for the first time since 2008.