New Record Prices Ahead For Heating-Oil Users - Average Bill = $2,000 - US News & World

Penny Osborn never before needed help with the cost of heating, but the 57-year-old physician's assistant had been out of work most of last year recovering from cancer surgery. And as cold weather set in, she faced an $855 bill to fill up the oil tank of her Colfax, Iowa, home—a delivery that would last only half the winter and already cost more than she paid for heat all last season. Osborn was able to fuel up only with federal and state energy assistance, which defrayed about 60 percent of the cost of her first provision of oil.

Unfortunately, two days after that delivery—while Osborn and her 78-year-old mother, who shares her home, were visiting relatives on Thanksgiving Day—a thief siphoned her oil tank dry. "It rated right up there with getting the diagnosis of cancer," Osborn says of the discovery. With temperatures below freezing throughout December, she borrowed money from friends to buy enough oil until her doctors cleared her to work again. "My prayer is that I'll find work very shortly," Osborn says.

Although Osborn's run of misfortune was unusual, the same kind of sticker shock is rattling households in all cold-weather states. The average cost of U.S. home heating this winter is expected to be up 11.2 percent over that in 2006-07, with the price tag of $989 expected to surpass even that following Hurricane Katrina, when the fuel supply was squeezed. And the situation is far worse for the 7.9 million American households that use heating oil, because its price is directly tied to the volatile global crude market. For them, the average heating bill is estimated to be $2,019, up 37.6 percent over last year.

"Going into 2008, we had expected oil prices to start easing," says Tancred Lidderdale, analyst for the U.S. Energy Information Administration. But the close match between global oil supply and demand—the tight market—means geopolitical tensions and market worries can have a large impact on price, he says. "And all the tightness in the market is showing up in heating oil" when it is in peak demand, Lidderdale says.

EDIT

http://www.usnews.com/articles/business/2008/01/10/ahead-for-heating-oil-users-a-record-shattering-winter.html

massive projects will be to solarize, and use other lower-impact methods, of heating -- a "Manhattan project" of retrofitting -- in these cold weather areas...

I have natural gas and for my small house, under 900 sq. ft., keeping it at 67 when home and down lower at night and empty, I pay over $1,000 per year. If I could afford solar panels, I would get them in an instant. Also, a wind turbine - I have a large yard - don't know how much room is needed, but I'd think my yard would be quite appropriate. I talked to someone about a tankless water heater and, because my house is so old and I'm not rich, it's not feasible. Right back to where we started - these green energy ways of life are unfordable for so many of us (and, no, I won't go so far as to call us useless eaters).

that is what we are in dire need of.

$648 for the fill. I'm going to have to figure out something over the summer. I can upgrade the furnace, switch to gas, or who knows what else. Unfortunately our house is not situated very well for solar and has lots of tall trees around it.

At that time I was told there was no NG in the neighborhood. Since then I found out that some people on the block have it. I'll look into the cost of a new furnace in the spring or summer when the contractors need the work.

and wasn't invading Iraq a glorious plan.

/sarcasm

:( 125 gallon fill-up @ $3.299/gallon = $412. It was cold last month, I got 2 deliveries :(