The nearly five-month long rally in energy stocks has taken a well-earned pause.

After racing to a nearly 90 percent return since Halloween 2020, the diversified S&P 500 Energy Sector Index has backed off a little less than 7 percent from the 52-week high. The midstream focused Alerian MLP Index has given back about 5 percent of its nearly 60 percent jump. And the S&P Oil & Gas Exploration Index is off about 6 percent after a more than 120 percent leap.

Despite their gains the past few months, many energy stocks up and down the value chain still trade in a lower range than they did the last time crude oil held above $50 a barrel, or natural gas was at $2 per million British Thermal Units for an extended period. And share prices are well below levels typical of the last time we saw $60 oil or $2.50 gas.

Plunging temperatures this winter are doing in Texas what scorching weather did in California this summer. That’s mainly proving natural gas is absolutely indispensable to America’s energy needs, and most probably will be for decades to come. In California last summer, prices for electricity spiked and blackouts loomed as the state’s solar-heavy power grid was unable to handle the demand surge. In this Texas’ winter, the combination of unprepared infrastructure, a nuclear plant shutdown, frozen wind power facilities and massive demand for natural gas heating triggered basically the same thing.