Home heating oil tops $3 per gallon, working families "choose between heating, eating, and driving"

[Amerigo Vespucci]

High Oil Prices Fuel Winter Heat Fears
By JERRY HARKAVY (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
November 11, 2007 5:27 PM EST

http://enews.earthlink.net/article/top?guid=20071111/47368c50_3ca6_15526200711111573739095

PORTLAND, Maine - Nowhere in America, it seems, are people more apprehensive about the prospect of a $3-a-gallon winter than in Maine.

Motorists nationwide may grumble about gasoline prices now hovering around $3 for a gallon of regular, but home heating oil that soared this month to $3.09 a gallon - breaking the $3 barrier for the first time - is the focus of concern in Maine. The reasons for Maine's vulnerability are clear:

It tops the list of states most dependent on oil heat, with 80 percent of homes relying on No. 2 oil or kerosene. It's one of the nation's coldest states, with the northern city of Caribou often singled out by the National Weather Service as having the lowest temperature among the Lower 48. In terms of per capita incomes, Maine is generally ranked as the poorest state in the Northeast. And lots of older homes lack adequate insulation, making them harder to heat.

So as heating oil prices hit record levels and the sound of oil furnaces kicking in becomes more frequent, plenty of people are worrying about whether they'll be able to scrape up enough money to keep warm. "It's not just low-income people who are fearful. It's the working couple or families who are now going to have to choose between heating, literally eating, and of course driving," said John Kerry, director of the state Office of Energy Independence and Security.



A lobster boat works in front of Walker's Point, the seaside home of former President George Bush in Kennebunkport, Maine.

[MADem]

1. It's getting so that supplementing with electric heat is actually more economical in that instance.

Especially if you can keep your furnace heat low, and limit your space heating to a confined area.

[Warpy]

3. Watching TV under an electric blanket

in a 50 degree room is about the most economical system of all.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

4. I use a DeLonghi sealed-oil "radiator"-type electric heater...

...similar to the one in this photo:



I work from home and spend the overwhelming majority of the time I'm here in my office, so I wheel this in, plug it in, and it heats the room very evenly.

:toast:

[MADem]

5. Those are the ticket, as are the Econo heaters, which use convection and operate fairly cheaply as

well. They must be installed on an interior wall to really do the trick, but they can supplement nicely, and they're safe.

http://www.eheat.com/

[Warpy]

2. They'll do what families I knew in the 70s did

They'll buy 5 gallon fuel cans and buy their heating oil 5 gallons at a time, keep the house cold and live in their coats. They'll warm the house just enough at night to keep the pipes from freezing.

I wish these soft, pink men who are congratulating themselves on getting the prices high enough that the money is rolling in faster could experience one of these winters in a cold house, being cold all the time so they can afford the gas to get to work and eating bad food that will keep them alive without nourishing them. I've been there and done that. Now it's their turn.

Before I will believe in justice, I'll have to see every rapacious pig who has pushed the looting of the working and middle classes in America fighting over restaurant garbage in a landfill. That includes all those stupid GOP voters who voted for tax cuts they never really got.