It's a Gas, Gas, Gas

"...your home heating bill, 70 percent higher than last year's" (!!!!)

Just as the weather in central Arkansas takes a turn for the fall-like (finally...90 degree temps in September/October were getting old), I read this sobering Slate article that already has me shivering.

Daniel Gross writes in Slate that higher gasoline were really just the tip of the ice berg as he predicts heating fuel prices could be an "enormous problem."

"The price of natural gas [which heats JP World Headquarters], the most popular fuel for heating homes, is rocketing upward, driven by rising demand, relatively stagnant North American supplies, and the disruptions imposed by the recent hurricanes," he writes.

The bottom line, he says, is that the Energy Information Administration projects that with a typical winter, "residential per-household expenditures" will rise by 71 percent for natural gas in the Midwest, [emphasis by JP] 31 percent for heating oil in the Northeast, and 40 percent for propane in the Midwest."

Yee-gads! I'm unpacking my sweaters tonight!

The October Surprise [Slate]