This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

DENVER (KDVR) — Let’s hope for a warm winter.

Gas and vehicle prices are show the biggest leaps in inflation, but no category escapes, including energy prices. Both electricity and natural gas are at record prices nationally and in Colorado.

Throughout 2021, Xcel Energy – Colorado’s largest electrical producer – asked the Colorado Public Utilities Commission for a rate increase for customers. This tracks with electrical prices being their highest-ever.

As of July 2021, Colorado’s rate for residential electricity was 11.61 cents per kilowatt hour – twice the price of 20 years ago. National rates have risen at the same speed.

As a silver lining, Colorado’s electricity prices are still beneath the national average by 15%.

Part of the increase in rates relates to natural gas, which not only heats homes on its own but generates some of the electricity from providers. COVID-related and international supply problems have caused natural gas prices to spike since bottoming out last summer.

Natural gas prices currently sit at the highest point at which they’ve been since 2014. As with oil prices, economists do not expect prices to sink soon.