Crude, Heating Oil Prices Soar!

[Chris_Wendt]

Crude Oil crossed $90 per barrel on the commodities exchange, and my wife, Sue, could not believe the cost of our oil delivery this afternoon.

In addition to dampening consumer sentiment, these events create feelings of mental depression and even anger or discouragement among community members. Heating oil and gas prices impinge upon our standard of living. as well as our ability to save or to protect our 'disposable income', by disposing of it for us.

Also, this will become another significant "HIT" to the school budget in the areas of heating and transportation costs, meaning a double-whammy effect when it hits our school taxes.

News12 Report: LI residents heated over soaring home heating oil prices
(12/08/10) MELVILLE - Long Islanders say they're frustrated with the high cost of home heating oil prices, which recently soared to their highest level in two years.
Kevin Rooney, of the Oil Heat Institute of Long Island, blames large investment firms who steer customers toward commodities such as oil. He says that usually triggers price hikes such as this one.

Long Island residents say they don't care who is to blame, they're just feeling helpless.

Rooney is also advising homeowners that now is not the time to lock in on a fixed price with their oil companies. He says the price is likely to drop at some point and residents could be stuck with very high-priced contracts.

Fox News Reports: High Oil Prices Hit 2 Year Spike
December 8, 2010 - 4:04 PM | by: Laura Ingle
Crude oil crossed the $90 per barrel threshold this week in trading, a price not seen in more than two years since oil peaked at $145 in 2008 before tumbling during the recession. Many analysts believe oil still has room to rise, and that the price could soar to $100 per barrel in early 2011 .

Driving the rise is a perfect storm of increased demand from a growing China and an intense early cold spell around the world. Winter has gripped much of North America and Europe, with freezing temperatures and snow blanketing much of the continents. This has pushed oil consumption to higher than anticipated levels and caused a surge in prices.

Consumers could be paying several hundred more dollars to heat their homes and fill up their cars this winter. Home heating oil has jumped to $2.47 a gallon, up 24 percent over this time last year. The northeastern U.S. will take the brunt of the heating oil spike, where more homeowners use heating oil over gas and electric. Kevin Rooney, Chief Executive of the Oil Heat Institute of Long Island, tells Fox News the spike in price this week, "is going to increase the average family's expenditure for home heating oil by more than two hundred dollars over the next several months." Rooney explains, “that’s because half of the oil they will use for the year, will be used in the next three months, and right now heating oil is roughly 40-cents a gallon higher than last year.”

Drivers could also be feeling the pain at the pump, paying more than three dollars a gallon on average before the Christmas holiday. That’s up from an average of $2.62 at the same time last year. Phil Flynn with Chicago based trading company PFGBEST says, "These higher gas prices could change their holiday plans. A lot of people who are struggling aren't going to have that extra money to fill that gas tank to travel over the holidays, so this could have a negative effect, a scrooge-like effect on the holiday driving weekend."

Higher gas prices mean consumers have less money to spend in other areas too effecting small businesses, transportation and retail. With the holiday season in full swing, this could have a trickledown effect - people spending less money in stores, creating less jobs and further weakening the economy.

Sorry, but I just really cannot afford to pay even more taxes to enrich any salary for any school district employee at this time. I know I am not alone in my frustration over this.

Did I mention how frustrated I am about this stuff?

Chris Wendt

(I did not edit either news report copied here.)