TimesLeader.com

Bills to give homeowners chills

Gov’t says households heating with oil to spend $449 more this winter.

H. JOSEF HEBERT Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON — Although global oil prices have plummeted, the cost of heating your home this winter will be a lot more expensive, especially for households that depend on fuel oil, the Energy Department said Tuesday.

click image to enlarge

click image to enlarge

In this file photo, Eric Myer of Eshenaurs Fuels delivers heating fuel to a Harrisburg home. Heating U.S. homes with oil will cost an average of $450 more than a year ago, another slap to families reeling from higher fuel and food costs.

Ap photo

Select images available for purchase in the
Times Leader Photo Store

Households that use fuel oil can expect to spend an average of $2,388 — or $449 more than last year — for the October-April heating season. Users of natural gas will pay less than half that, $1,010 on average, still $155 more than last year.

The department’s Energy Information Administration emphasized that the cost figures should be viewed as “a broad guide” comparing this year’s expected heating costs to last winter and said actual expenses can vary depending on region, local weather and the energy efficiency of individual homes.

But across the board, whether one uses heating oil, natural gas, propane or electricity, costs will be higher, said the agency.

Users of electricity to heat homes will see the smallest increase, about 10 percent on average; followed by propane, 11 percent; natural gas, which is used in more than half of the nation’s homes, 18 percent; and heating oil, used widely in the Northeast, 23 percent.

That’s not good news for a country in which people have been reeling from a summer of record $4-a-gallon gasoline, a booming credit crisis and a struggling economy.

Energy experts say some people have yet to pay last winter’s heating bills or the summer’s air conditioning costs. A recent Associated Press survey found that utility shutoffs because of unpaid bills have been running 17 percent to 22 percent higher than last year.

The Energy Department said it expects the price of fuel oil will average $3.90 a gallon, 60 cents more than last winter.

While the cost of crude oil has declined from a high of $147 a barrel in July to just under $88 a barrel for delivery in November, the department said “oil markets are expected to remain relatively tight because of sluggish production growth.”