Although recent developments in asteroid mining could alter our current perception of scarcity, commodities like oil and gas are becoming increasingly difficult to harvest, as most of the low-hanging fruit has already been picked. As current reserves become more capital intensive to access, consumers will continue to see the prices of oil and gas rise until a substitute is introduced. But these same laws also apply to other finite minerals and elements.

Take, for example, helium. As the second-most abundant element in the observable universe, helium is the most commonly used inert gas in the world. Most helium in the universe – helium-4 – is believed to have formed during the Big Bang, but our limited supply on Earth was formed over billions of years through the radioactive decay of uranium and thorium atoms in the Earth’s mantle, a process that generates just 3.4 liters per kilometer per year.

Besides increasing the pitch of one’s voice and inflating party balloons, helium is used in cryogenics, particularly for cooling superconducting magnets in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines; by NASA to clean and pressurize rocket engines; in deep-sea diving; inflating airships; and other applications. Its low density and boiling point (the lowest on the periodic table) make it an ideal substance for a wide range of industrial and scientific uses.

Despite its commercial viability, the price of helium has remained at artificially low rates since the mid-1990s. Much of the supply glut is attributed to a measure passed by the US government entitled the Helium Privatization Act, which stipulated that the amount of helium sold off each year from the National Helium Reserve should follow a straight line, with the same amount being sold each year irrespective of the global demand for it.

A basic supply and demand model will tell you that when the government sets the price of any good below the market price, shortages are soon to follow. As a Boston Herald article explains, local companies that depend on helium are already noticing rising prices and shortages.

The federal government’s involvement in the helium market began soon after helium mining developed at the turn of the century, and eventually prompted the US government to establish the National Helium Reserve in 1925. The reserve holds about one billion cubic meters – or about half of the world’s helium reserves – underground in the porous rock of an unused natural gas field 30 miles north of Amarillo, TX.

This strategic reserve came in handy during World War II, since helium was a major component of military airships. The National Helium Reserve became even more important during the Cold War, since helium is used to purge rocket fuel in intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Once the government decided to sell off the strategic reserves in 1996, the market was flooded with cheap helium, causing the price of helium – which is non-renewable, like oil and natural gas – to fall through the floor. The artificially low prices were exacerbated by the government’s insistence on selling off the entire reserve by 2015, regardless of price.

“The basic problem is that helium is too cheap,” says Nobel laureate Robert Richardson, professor of physics at Cornell University. “The Earth is 4.7 billion years old and it has taken that long to accumulate our helium reserves, which we will dissipate in about 100 years. One generation does not have the right to determine availability forever.”

In fact, helium is so cheap right now that one of its largest consumers, NASA, makes no attempt to recycle the helium used to clean its rocket fuel tanks. Why would they if it’s cheaper to just buy more helium?

Professor Richardson, who believes the price of helium should rise between 20- to 50-fold to make recycling more worthwhile, cochaired an inquiry convened by the US National Research Council. The council, which is a part of the National Academy of Science, concluded that the federal government should reconsider its policy of selling off the US national helium reserve irrespective of the market price.

As of 2011, the US Geological Survey estimated that the total worldwide volume of extractable helium amounts to 51.9 billion m3, with supply concentrated in seven countries: US, Algeria, Canada, China, Qatar, Poland, and Russia. The US is by far the world’s leading helium producer, with over 77% of the world’s helium extracted in 2011. The US is also the largest consumer, using roughly 56 million m3 of helium (or 2.0 billion ft3) in 2011.

Much of the helium( as radioactive by-product formed in the Earth’s crust) collects in natural gas deposits. But these trace amounts of helium are not worthwhile to recover at current prices; miners typically let the gas escape into the atmosphere. Only a large concentration – usually 0.3% or higher – is economically viable to retrieve.

Companies that specialize in the sale of helium and other industrial gases, such as Praxair, Inc. (NYSE.PX) and Airgas Inc. (NYSE.ARG), could reap lucrative profits if the price of helium starts to skyrocket. Further, companies involved in the exploration of natural gas, including Chesapeake Energy (NYSE.CHK) and Devon Energy Corp. (NYSE.DVN), would likely start capturing helium that escapes when harvesting natural gas.

However, private industry will have trouble keeping up with the government’s basement prices: according to the US Geological Survey, the price the government charged in 2011 for crude helium was $2.70 per m3, while private industry had to charge nearly $6 per m3.

As with any commodity, when the government ignores price signals and sets the price of a good below its market value, shortages are inevitable. Similar to the government’s reaction to high gas prices in the 1970s when Nixon decreed that companies could not charge the market rate for oil, shortages followed. Allowing the government to dictate price only solves the demand problem, pushing the issue of limited supply onto businesses.

By ignoring the role of price signals in the helium market, the US government is squandering a non-renewable resource that took billions of years to develop in just a few decades. Although the market will eventually readjust to higher prices, much of our finite helium supply will be wasted until the federal government alters its policy.