NEW YORK: Hurricane Harvey is forcing natural gas drilling platforms to evacuate and pipelines to shut, curbing supplies of the power-plant fuel across the Gulf Coast. So why aren’t electricity and gas prices skyrocketing?
Because Harvey, set to slam into Texas as the worst hurricane the region has seen in a decade, will also sap power and gas demand as people evacuate and temperatures drop. Gas use in East Texas may fall about 8% this weekend, according to energy data provider Genscape Inc. And the state’s power demand may tumble 27% on Saturday from a week earlier, forecasts from the the region’s grid operator show.