Practically everyone in the Midwest knows about the recent record high gasoline prices. Now they’re being warned about a huge increase in -natural- gas prices too. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says prices in that commodity have quietly made huge leaps in recent weeks.The price for a unit of natural gas has increased from two-dollars 28-cents to four dollars-50 cents. Grassley says he sent a letter to President Clinton this week, requesting the administration take action to ensure there will be an adequate supply of natural gas before the cold weather arrives in several months. Grassley says natural gas accounts for 23-percent of Iowa’s total energy consumption.Grassley, a republican, says it is the orders of the Clinton administration which are forcing the supply of natural gas to dwindle, and thus, the increase in price.Grassley says the federal regulations force many off-shore and on-land natural gas drilling sites to be out of bounds.
