Under the Obama administration, energy prices have steadily risen thanks to the war on coal and an expanding regulatory state. This year has been no different. In fact, consumer costs are increasing at the fastest rate since Obama took office. The Washington Examiner reports, “Electricity prices for the first half of the year increased the most in a year-over-year basis since 2009, according to the Energy Department’s statistics arm.” Nationally, the index rose by 3.2%, but “New England led much of the spike, as prices there jumped 11.8 percent,” the Examiner notes. “The region faced a brutal winter, leading to a natural gas supply crunch that caused prices to soar.” And that’s a huge concern. Meteorologist Joe D'Aleo writes, “Last winter, residents of many parts of the North paid as much for electricity as in all of 2012. Some power plants came within two days of running out of oil in New England [emphasis added].” D'Aleo’s company, WeatherBell Analytics, believes this coming winter could rival – perhaps dwarf? – last season’s cold. New EPA regulations coming down the pipe only add to the concern of a possible energy crisis in the making – all thanks to eco-alarmists’ obsession with “global warming.” More…