Tropical storms and the U.S. natural gas demand: how have hurricanes impacted natural gas consumption?

C-Tier
Journal: Applied Economics
Year: 2023
Volume: 55
Issue: 10
Pages: 1074-1097

Authors (2)

Kuangchung Hsu (not in RePEc) Zhen Zhu (University of Central Oklahoma)

Score contribution per author:

0.503 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 0.5x C-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

Studies of the impact of tropical storms on various economic activities including energy production are on the rise given higher frequencies of tropical storms and the increasingly large and negative impact in more recent years. However, we found no academic study of tropical storms on natural gas consumption. This paper provides such a study. In carrying out the empirical investigation, we created a dataset that includes the detailed path of the storms and the cities and states impacted. We estimated the storms’ impact on temperature and also the temperature’s impact on consumption to gauge the specific impact of tropical storms by state and by end use. We found significant storm impact on natural gas consumption, especially consumption of gas to produce power. However, the impact of a typical storm on gas consumption was relatively small on a monthly basis even though it could have a large impact on storm days. This study provides an important empirical result to better understand natural gas price dynamics in the presence of a tropical storm.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:taf:applec:v:55:y:2023:i:10:p:1074-1097
Journal Field
General
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-29