Today's Bitch= OIL

Where do I start? How about a couple evenings ago while watching the National news?
I let out a shocked gasp of exclamation, and clamped my hands over my face in shock. My children came running, asking, "What's wrong, what's wrong?"

How to explain to little ones compassion and the plight seniors and everyone else that relies on oil to heat their homes are facing?

What was it that I heard on the news? That local oil companies are pre-booking winter heating fuel at 4.50-5.00 a gallon.

Now allow me to explain. Here, heating oil suppliers allow customers to prepay this time of year for heating fuel they will need in the winter, usually for a lower price then when the demand increases.

Last year folks were faced with prices around $2 a gallon, and many huddled around their home cookstoves (electric or natural gas) to keep from freezing to death. Homes require a minimum of 100 gallons of fuel of month to heat. That is 450-500 a month at current pre-booking prices, with a five month heating season. That is almost as much as most have to pay on their monthly rent or mortgage.

Scary stuff! I was very worried for folks last year, but thankfully we had a relatively mild winter (although with lots of snow). The snow hurt me more than the cold, as I heat with wood but have to pay to have the driveway plowed. That was 2-3 times a week for quite awhile, as my regular reader will recall.

I digress. What started this blog happened when I logged on to my news homepage. Paulson, secretary of the treasury says, "there is no quick fix for oil" and it is "a matter of supply and demand."

Right, and Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

The price of oil is driven by speculators. We are screwed.

Paulson used this opportunity to encourage oil producing countries to open up to investment, exploration, and marketing. What that means is that a big oil company, such as Exxon, goes in and offers less than 20% for what is pumped in exchange for absorbing the cost of exploration, drilling, and transporting.

Last month, gasoline demand here in the US was down 7% from last year. There was a 4% drop in Memorial day travel at the Maine toll.

Car dealers are offerring 2.99 a gallon credit on the purchase of a new truck for the first 12,000 miles. Gotta keep us consuming....

Because what is going to happen when we all cut back on our oil use? Good things for climate change, we hope, but not good news for those oil companies. The price could drop. Maybe, if we are lucky.

Or there are going to be some cold folks around here this winter.