"one thing Smith and other dealers doubt they can continue to offer: locked-in prices."
Uh-oh!
So the choice this winter will be FOOD or FUEL, huh?
"Heating fuel costs a year-round worry; Many spread out payments, but locked-in prices may end" by Erin Ailworth, Globe Staff | July 4, 2008
Every day, Anderson Fuel's sales manager, Frank Smith, puts more home heating oil customers on monthly payment plans, offers energy-savings tips, and fields calls about replacing old heating systems.
Smith said he will do almost anything to help the Scituate company's more than 3,000 customers prepare for what is expected to be a winter of staggeringly high heating bills.
But there's one thing Smith and other dealers doubt they can continue to offer: locked-in prices. In years past, dealers negotiated low-price oil contracts with regional distributors up to almost a year in advance and purchased insurance to guard against significant price increases.
Customers could lock in a per-gallon price or opt for a plan that capped how much they would pay. But as the price of a barrel of oil has risen over $145, insurance premiums for dealers have also been rising. With no end in sight, price-protection contracts have become risky propositions.
For who? The guys clearing billions in profits?
Virginia Boyle said her family has already taken steps to conserve oil, including turning down the thermostat, washing clothes in cold water, and weather-stripping windows.
How come at every turn, the AVERAGE AMERICANS standard of living DROPS?!?!
Michael Ferrante, president of the Massachusetts Oilheat Council, said he's not surprised that price-protection plans are "basically nonexistent right now."
I guess that's why they wanna talk to me, huh?
The average oil customer uses between 900 and 1,100 gallons a year, he said, so at $4.50 a gallon, the average bill would be $4,050 to $4,950.
"The prices for home heating oil are historically high because the prices of crude oil are historically high," Ferrante said this week. "Heating oil prices went to almost $4 a gallon at the wholesale [level]. If you're a retail home heating oil supplier, it's going to cost you $4 a gallon before you even add on your overhead cost, or dare I say, profit."
I wouldn't (see today's "Hang the Hedge Fund Managers" post)!!
Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors' Association, said he expects rising home heating oil prices to suck about $800 million more out of the Massachusetts economy next year, based on an estimated $4.50 per gallon average cost in 2009, compared with $3.30 last winter. That means consumers will be paying for their heating with money originally saved for things like swimming lessons for the kids, Friday night dinners out, or vacations, he said.
"For some people, this is their monthly paycheck," Wolfe said. "That's the gloomy picture. How do you adjust to it?"
I told you your standard of living is going down the flusher.
Think this will affect the state's budget forecast?
Teasie Riley Goggin said she and her husband not only use heating oil for their Salem house, but for nine apartments they rent out. "Of course I'm worried, " Goggin said. "Is it going to be necessary to go to your savings account to pay for oil?"
Why not?! They are TAKING IT ALL ANYWAY!!!
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DALLAS - Crude oil rose above $145 a barrel to a record amid signs global demand for fuels, particularly from China, may strain supplies.
PetroChina Co. may import record volumes of petroleum products this year for reconstruction after an earthquake, China National Petroleum Corp. said Saturday, and to prepare for the Olympics. Heating oil futures, a proxy for distillate fuels including diesel, rose to a record yesterday.
Yup, blame ANYONE and ANYTHING except Israel and the dropping dollar!
"You've got the economic reality that the US economy stinks, demand for oil stinks," said David Pursell, managing partner at Tudor Pickering Hold Co. in Houston.
The euro fell the most against the dollar in more than three weeks after European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet indicated he may not boost interest rates again. Declines in the dollar were one of the factors responsible for a 48 percent increase in oil futures prices in the first half of the year.
Yeah, it is THE MAJOR ONE -- but the Zionist-controlled, banker-excusing MSM has kept that pretty much hidden!
Always blaming SOMETHING ELSE!
Earlier yesterday, oil reached a record amid buying from investors seeking an alternative to tumbling stock markets and amid concern a conflict with Iran over its nuclear program would cut Persian Gulf supplies.
Nearly all of oil's "last $10 move is based on the potential for an Israeli-Iranian conflict," said Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates LLC, a consulting company in Houston.
Oh, TANKS a LOT, ASSHOLE Iz-ray-HELL!!!!
Oil prices are being led higher by factors including geopolitics, the weakening dollar, and concern about future supplies, Saudi Arabia's oil minister, Ali al-Naimi, said yesterday.
There they go again!
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