CNN Money recently reported: “The price of heating the average home with oil is expected to jump 10% this year to an average of $2,535 over the winter heating season (October 1 through March 31), according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). That’s 45% higher than just two years ago, when the average bill was just $1,752.
Even while keeping the thermostat in the low 60s, the McLaughlins burn about 750 gallons of oil a year. At about $3.50 a gallon, that’s more than $2,600. “We’re in a real bind; There’s no safety net,” said Bill. “We’ve run through all our savings and if we pay for heat, we have less money for food and medicine. We don’t even have our car out on the road. My wife depends on friends when she has to go someplace.”
The McLaughlins can partly blame their soaring heating bills on political unrest in Libya, which has caused oil prices across the globe to soar, explained Neil Gamson, an economist and forecaster for the EIA
Less reliance on oil: One bright spot is that the rising price of oil affects far fewer households than it did in the past. Most homeowners have already transitioned to natural gas, with less than 10% of all households still burning oil. That percentage is expected to drop even further as the cheaper fuel option becomes available in more towns, said Gamson.
The new faces of poverty
For those who heat their homes with gas, prices are projected to be stable over the next few years. There’s a glut of natural gas available and more is coming on line as new sources, like the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania and New York, open up for development.
The EIA projected gas prices will be just 2.2% higher during this winter season and nearly 18% lower than two years ago. The average homeowner will pay only about $732 to heat their home with gas this season.
But those kinds of energy bills are a pipedream for people like the Bill McLaughlin. “I don’t want anything extra,” he said. “I just want to be able to go to bed at night with the temperature set at 60 degrees.”
