Up to the recent hike in gas prices gas heating would have been a good deaL cheaper than other systems to heat your house. There is an argument that in order to get people to move to heat pumps and other lower emitting heating systems in their homes the cost would have to be more or less equivalent to the cheapest systems. One way to make that happen is to increase gas pricing to “encourage” take up of the other systems. I am not saying I concur but I have seen the argument made. I am more inclined to agree with Putin who blames the move to a spot pricing market setup rather than agreeing long term pricing and supply contracts. Spot prices are great when everything is cheap but not so great when there is a supply shortage. That and poor contingency planning.