Climate Variability and Cold-Season Energy Budgeting

As climate variability continues to be among the largest influences on human activity, research focuses on specific impacts and feedbacks these two mechanisms have on one another. Similarly, this study investigates the effects of High Plains climate variability on energy consumption and pricing. The city of Omaha, Nebraska was selected for use as the representative target in this investigation and as such, all climatological and energy data used is from Omaha and its surrounding metro area. Several types of analyses were utilized. Those presented in this study include: correlations to discern relationships between Natural Gas price patterns and climate predictors; contingency tables to aid in Cold-Season energy budgeting and general understanding of the aforementioned correlations; and a consumption analysis of energy usage at Creighton University over a five year period, to add relevance and additional value to the investigation. Additionally, a review of the annular modes of variability is presented, as well as an analysis of their contribution to energy prices over the High Plains. This study aims to present different influences and factors that shape energy prices, a subset of the United States' fossil fuel driven economic system. A better understanding of those factors will lead to better economic policy and action on multiple scales ranging from the producer to the consumer.