This spring has provided us with another reminder that farmers should never count on good weather. One thing we should be able to count on though is a reliable supply of natural gas. Despite high natural gas inventories and near record production in recent years, prices continue to be extremely volatile and are prone to huge spikes as a result of increased speculative trading.

Currently, natural gas heats about 51% of American homes and makes up 70-90% of the production costs for nitrogen-based fertilizer. As a result of recent increases in demand and price, many of the nation’s farmers have seen their fertilizer costs increase significantly. If you live on a fixed income-like many seniors do- more and more of that income goes to heating your home.

Speculative trading and irrational investing have caused a lot of the volatility in natural gas prices. I am working on a bi-partisan bill to re-establish transparency in the natural gas market. By closing loopholes that allow people to play the market, we can restore some stability to the natural gas market.

I believe that it is manufacturers, seniors and farmers who are being burned by these artificially high natural gas prices. This bill will bring back some much needed predictability for those who rely on natural gas to heat their home or run their business. After all, it is difficult to meet the bottom line if you don’t know where it is going to be.

# # #