It’s going to be a long, cold winter in New England:
One of every two homes in New England burns heating oil, compared with just one in 20 in the rest of the country, where most homes use natural gas, according to the Energy Department. Now, as heating oil follows crude to record prices - the state this week reported the average cost of heating oil was $2.91 a gallon, up 24 percent from a year ago - the impact will fall most heavily on New England, economists said.
“Prices are crazy,” said Patrick Melia, owner of Melia Fuel in Marshfield. “People are scared, and they should be.”
Madeline Sanabria, a single mother of three, certainly is. Sanabria, 29, who makes just under $40,000 a year as a medical biller, said she hasn’t turned on the heat yet in her Roslindale apartment, telling her children on chilly nights to throw another comforter on the bed. She has also stopped buying snack cakes and other treats for her children in anticipation of sharply higher winter heating bills.
“Do you choose food, or do you choose to be heated?” she said. “Just hearing the news about oil, you have to cut back.”
speaking as a 20 year veteran of new england’s winter, I can vouch that this is absolutely accurate.
And you know what? I have oil down here in philadelphia. It’s normally cheaper than gas, and you have more control over how much you use. But this year (and last) the two fuels hit parity.
One thing that New Englanders (and all oil users) can do is supplement with vegetable oil. You have to move the tank into the same room as the burner so the vegetable oil won’t coagulate (there is no increased risk of fire, most of the oil-heated houses I’ve lived in had the tank and the burner relatively close to each other).
I know a number of people who have had success with this strategy.
Hopefully, once again Hugo Chavez will provide some relief to low income Americans. Oh, I forgot he is the devil!