It will be your choice this winter, Amurkns!
"Sharp Rise in Winter Heating Bills Is Forecast" by JAD MOUAWAD
After another year of volatile energy prices, American consumers should expect sharply higher heating bills this winter, the government said in a report yesterday.
The average spending for households is expected to jump by 10 percent this winter to $977, compared with $889 last year, according to a report by the Energy Information Administration, the forecasting and statistical unit of the Department of Energy. Spending on heating oil is expected to jump 22 percent.
Rising global energy prices and an expected colder winter this year accounted for the estimated increases, the energy agency said in its yearly winter price forecast.
While some analysts question whether fuel demand will stay high in the face of steeper prices and slowing economic growth, consumers should expect little respite this winter. Costs for all types of energy, like heating oil, propane, natural gas and even electricity, are forecast to go up.
Oil and natural gas prices have risen sharply in recent years because of high demand from American and Asian consumers, particularly in China, and supply problems from a raft of producers, including Nigeria, Iraq and Venezuela. Some analysts have also blamed shortfalls in production at domestic refineries for pushing up energy prices.
Many oil producers are spending billions of dollars in a rush to bring new supplies to energy-hungry consumers, but energy markets are expected to remain tight in the short term. “We’re still in a constrained world,” said Guy F. Caruso, the energy agency’s administrator.
Spending on natural gas, which is used by 58 percent of the nation’s 108 million households, is expected to increase about 10 percent, compared with last year, with household bills averaging $891.
Electricity spending is expected to rise the least. The third of Americans who rely on electricity for heating their homes will see their expenses rise only 4 percent, to $855 a household, this winter. Most of the power generation in the country comes from coal and nuclear energy, and prices for them have not gone up as much as oil and gas.
The biggest jump in consumer prices this winter is expected for heating oil, which is mostly used in homes in the Northeast. On average, spending for heating oil is expected to jump 22 percent, to an average of $1,785 a household, according to the agency’s forecast. Heating oil is used by 7 percent of American households.
Users of propane, 5 percent of households, will see their bills rise by 16 percent, to $1,570.
Crude oil prices have been particularly volatile this year. They are up a third since the beginning of the year. After dropping to $50 a barrel in January, they reached $83 a barrel last month. They closed at $80.26 a barrel yesterday, up 1.6 percent, on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Natural gas prices have also risen, although not as sharply. Natural gas futures have gained 9 percent since the beginning of the year. They closed at $6.86 per thousand cubic feet yesterday in New York.
“Once again, consumers are being whiplashed by spiraling energy costs,” said Kateri Callahan, president of the Alliance to Save Energy, a consumer advocacy group in Washington. “The overall trend for the past seven seasons has been up. This is not a good trend for consumers’ pocketbooks.”
Ms. Callahan said consumers could cut their bills through better energy use — for example, by better insulating homes or installing programmable thermostats.
Residential gas prices are expected to average $13.14 per thousand cubic feet this winter, compared with $12.36 last winter, according to the energy agency’s forecast. Heating oil prices are expected to rise to $2.88 a gallon, up 16 percent from last year."
Don't get angry, though, America.
I'm sure the oil companies will rake in BILLIONS in PROFITS!
That ought to warm you while you are sitting in your freezing shit home (provided you haven't been foreclosed on yet!
