It is threatening one of America's most beloved consumer sectors: beer.
New Orleans brewer Jacob Landry said on Wednesday morning that a crisis in the supply of industrial carbon dioxide has caused chaos in the American craft-brewer industry.
Landry, the founder and CEO of Urban South Brewery in New Orleans, said it was pretty disturbing.
There is a lot of uncertainty in the midst of all the uncertainty we've had. It's one more challenge. The cost of gas has tripled recently, according to Landry. He paid 20 cents per pound for his most recent shipment of CO2, after paying just 6 cents per pound for previous shipments.
Landry cited a long list of other cost increases as a threat to the craft-beer business, which has been one of the nation's great small-business success stories over the past 25 years.
C 02 SHORTAGE: Can prices climbed 20 percent this year, cardboard prices are up 20 percent and grain prices have gone up as much as 50 percent, he said.
Landry said that carbon dioxide is critical during a lot of different stages of the brewing process.
We need it in order to push beer from tank to tank. We need it in order to package our beer and make sure that oxygen doesn't get it in it, which will degrade the beer. One of the nation's largest gas production hubs in Mississippi is called the Jackson Dome.
It is a natural source of CO 2, and it's something that many breweries use.
The brewer told Fox Friends First that the gas being pumped from the dome contains elevated levels of hydrocarbons and benzene. We use a higher quality beverage grade in the beverage industry. Some additional contaminants can add some flavors to our beer that we don't want in our beer - that we try to keep out. He can get the much-needed gas.
Massachusetts brewery Night Shift Brewing is cutting jobs and reorganizing its beer production operations after learning that its vendor is reducing CO 2 deliveries.
It has put us in a tough spot. Night Shift founder Michael Oxton told FOX Business it was awful.
Landry said on Wednesday that it is a critical time to support your local brewery.
Buy beer that is as close to home as possible.