Oil costs double overnight By Associated Press, 2/5/2000 13:01

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) The price of home heating oil has reached record highs in Rhode Island, with a 14-cent increase in one day.

The average price of a gallon of home heating oil jumped to $1.92 on Friday from $1.78 the day before, according to a survey by the Rhode Island Energy Office.

And that's only an average. Some retailers were charging as much as $2.03 a gallon.

Last year, the average cost of 100 gallons of home heating oil was about $85.90. Now, the same amount of fuel would cost more than double at $192.

Janice McClanaghan, chief of energy at the state Energy Office, said cold weather has peeked demand and supplies have been tight.

''As fast as it comes in, it goes right out,'' McClanaghan told The Providence Journal.

She said Rhode Island doesn't have the capacity it once had to store large quantities of oil.

Today, the maximum storage is 125 gallons compared to 300 gallons due to stricter environmental laws. Victor R. Allienello Jr., a spokesman for the Oil Heat Institute of Rhode Island, a trade organization of oil dealers, is worried about the deteriorating supply of heating oil.

''We have a crisis here. We need to have something done,'' said Allienello, who is also president of East Providence Fuel Oil.

McClanaghan said if people are stuck with paying the higher prices, ''There's not a lot you can do at this point. You just try to ride it out and hope it gets warmer.''

For information about energy-assistance programs, the Energy Office can be reached at 222-3003. The lines are normally staffed from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. business days, and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on weekends.

link

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/036/region/Oil_costs_double_overnight_:.shtml

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), February 05, 2000

Answers

Carl:

::Last year, the average cost of 100 gallons of home heating oil was ::about $85.90. Now, the same amount of fuel would cost more than ::double at $192.

Don't know if the headline came from you or the newspaper the costs obviously didn't double overnight.

-- Jim Cooke (JJCooke@yahoo.com), February 05, 2000.

"Today, the maximum storage is 125 gallons compared to 300 gallons due to stricter environmental laws."

State enforced JIT delivery. Good grief, if it takes 10 gallons/day to heat a house, you get a 12.5 day supply of fuel. No wonder people are running out of fuel.

These regulatory idiots base everything on perfect conditions. Arrrrrgh!

-- rocky (rknolls@no.spam), February 05, 2000.

Boy, just think how expensive things would be if there were inflation. Glad that the government tells us that inflation is dead.

-- X (X@X.com), February 05, 2000.

Did I read that right? 125 max storage? Does that really mean that a homeowner can't have 150 or 250 gal of oil in their tank? In Rhode Island? As if they never have STORMS in Rhode Island?

Every day brings new wonders and amazements, but not all of them good.

-- Arewyn (artemis31@msn.com), February 05, 2000.

Good Lord, RI citizens are only "allowed" to have 125 gallons of fuel on hand at a time, so as to save the environment?!!! Talk about a bunch of fascists.

No wonder they are running out of fuel so quickly. Hell, if I had to live there, I'd have 10+ cords of wood stacked, and another 100-200 gallons of fuel in a seperate tank that the state didn't know about. Sheeze.

Bet this round of higher heating oil prices encourages people to get woodstoves and/or more efficient appliances.

-- Bill (billclo@blazenet.net), February 06, 2000.