PORTLAND PRESS HERALD:

"Kerosene dealers find the fuel almost impossible to get"

'Jerry Sullivan, owner of Ring's Coal and Oil in Yarmouth, stands by his empty kerosene tanks Thursday. Like many smaller dealers, Sullivan ran out of kerosene this week and can't get resupplied. The sudden cold snap, combined with operational problems at two major oil refineries and a lack of reserves, means there is virtually no kerosene available to wholesalers in the Northeast this week. The little kerosene that is for sale in Maine, where it makes up over 8 percent of the energy used to heat homes, is getting scarce and expensive. The shortages were seen Thursday at the state's major oil terminals in South Portland. The Sprague Energy terminal has room to store 11 million gallons of kerosene, but by late Thursday afternoon had only 40,000 gallons on hand. And that inventory was not expected to last through today...'

[complete story, plus newspaper link, on the Y2K NEWS CENTRE page, newly-added to the January 22nd reports]

-- John Whitley (jwhitley@inforamp.net), January 23, 2000

Answers

The URL you gave to "Y2K NEWS CENTRE" didn't work!

-- Anne in TN (imnot@work.com), January 23, 2000.

Spoke with father today and he is in Branson Missouri-said he paid $1.99 a gallon for kerosene.

-- (I Believe(Repent@time is now.com)), January 23, 2000.

Sorry, Anne - try this 'manual workaround' :)

This Is Not A Y2K Problem

-- John Whitley (jwhitley@inforamp.net), January 23, 2000.

This is terrible news. Last winter I lost power for a week due to an ice storm, and my neighborhood became a ghost town! Depending on the region effected, there are only so many options each family will have. Few folks can afford hotels for any length of time, and few families can weather the emotional impact of extended house guests.

-- Hokie (Hokie_@hotmail.com), January 23, 2000.

* * * 20000123 Sunday

One gallon of kerosene in Clarkston, Michigan (USA) US$2.35!!

Regards, Bob Mangus

* * *

-- Robert Mangus (rmangus1@yahoo.com), January 23, 2000.

Corrected url for his site:

http://www.inforamp.net/~jwhitley/Y2KNEWS.HTM

(Take out the space before .HTM)

-- marc1a (marcia@nckodokan.com), January 23, 2000.

Kerosene's still $1.59 here at the gas station pumps.

-- Dean -- from (almost) Duh Moyn (dtmiller@midiowa.net), January 23, 2000.

Kerosene has been $3.00 / gallon here in North Dakota for as long as 9 years. Seems funny with all the oil fields we have up here (yes there is something besids snow and wheat here) . If I could get it for $2.50 or less I would be ecstatic!

-- Your kero prices are cheap (itsmild@northdakota.com), January 24, 2000.