Polar

When the polar vortex first arrived earlier this month, it drove record natural gas demand, prompted constraints on pipelines into New England and hampered delivery of other fuels, and now forecasters say the arctic cyclone could make a return appearance before the end of January.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar heard from two polar opposites last week — Anchorage, AK, which was gung-ho for oil and natural gas development on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), and San Francisco, which resisted the prospect. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin even went as far as to suggest that halting oil and gas development would exacerbate global warming.

All points were on the same price page Wednesday, rising by large amounts in nearly all cases as a polar air mass that had already occupied the Midwest and Plains threatened to spread its heating load influence into parts of the South and Northeast. And although the West will still be mild to warm in the desert Southwest and inland portions of the West Coast states, it has its share of weather-related demand in the Rockies, where Denver is expected to see a second straight low in the high 20s Thursday.

The cash market failed to derive much new strength Wednesday from a polar air mass continuing to dominate the weather picture in the northern half of the U.S. from the Rockies eastward and starting to spread into parts of the Southeast, not to mention a soaring screen. Instead, most points ranged from a nickel or so higher to down about 20 cents, with considerably greater declines recorded at Northeast citygates.