Ironically, over the last 6-8 months, NYMEX gas futures (nearby months) have DROPPED 80%.
Your local utilities are probably behind on their price increases from last year. If their profits were low last year because of their high costs, they will make an absolute mint this year, because their input costs are extremely low now.
Here in Alabama when Obama's EPA forced us to shut down a coal plant, our power company opted to build a natural gas plant to replace it instead of undependable solar or wind. The natural gas plant isn't finished yet but they're using old natural gas plants normally used only for reserve. Thus, my power company has increased demand for natural gas, which increases price locally. This also makes our power bill more impacted with the price of natural gas. (The more my power company pays for natural gas, the higher the rider added to the bill per kWh.). For example, the cost per kWh in our January bill was up 19.5% YOY from prior January.
Bull crap like this is why I went solar and converted my house to all-electric and do most of our driving in an EV. Natural gas, oil, and coal are all way better than solar and would be cheaper to utilize if the Dims didn't get in the way. But the bottom line is I can't drill or mine my own natural gas or oil or coal -- I have to buy them through the energy market the Dims mess up. Solar is the one energy source I don't have to beg for and it's providing 80% of the power we need in our all-electric home, including charging the EV. We shouldn't have to think like DIY energy project engineers to keep government policies from draining us through energy costs. But it is what it is so I do my best to protect my wife's and mine retirement financial planning from being sucked away by energy inflation.