Released: June 15, 2008

Winter worries come early

Source: M. P. Dunleavy, New York Times (Free Registration)

It may seem crazy to fret about winter, with summer’s official start just days away. Yet the rising price of winter is on my mind, as it is for many of us who heat our homes — most unfortunately — with oil.

If you depend on natural gas for heat, or if cold winters aren’t an issue where you live, it may be hard to imagine the impact of the recent oil increases in my corner of the Northeast — a rural county in the Catskills, where oil-burning furnaces are the norm.

On top of the sticker shock at the gas pump, which has been spilling over into food and utility costs, the jump in oil prices has forced many of us to do a rapid recalculation of what it will take to get through the coming winter.

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