http://www.msnbc.com/local/WVIT/370390.asp

High oil prices leave some homeowners in the cold

EAST HARTFORD, Conn., Feb. 5 - The ongoing oil shortage has left some Connecticut homeowners in the cold. Others are being forced to shell out more cash to heat their homes.

Dipping into her last batch of seasoned firewood, Janis Kuhlmann of Newington has no choice but to use a fire for heat. Her oil bill has more than doubled from $0.90 a gallon to $2.00 a gallon since the last shipment. It keeps on going up and up and up and its hard to survive, she said.

Saturday truck drivers refilled their tankers with the reduced amounts of oil available. Some say theyre skeptical about the shortage. There as plenty of oil and all of a sudden in 10 days there was no oil, a little tough to believe, Al Certone of Seymour said.

Kasden Fuel Co. of East Hartford says local suppliers are dry because of the sudden cold spell and the low amount of inventory to draw from. For the first six weeks of winter we had no winter, we had basically spring. Then, all of a sudden the winter hit, there was the cold spell and then the level of inventory that we had was far below what we used to, Bruce Deitch of Kasden told NBC 30.

With OPEC yet to promise any boost in production, Deitch says there is no lasting relief in sight. If we get some cold weather in March or April this could happen again. You know, you may see a price decrease in the next couple weeks but any sudden cold weather will just drive it right back up again, Deitch said.

Kasden says they are expecting a substantial oil shipment on Monday but that it will not immediately lower your oil bill, Deitch said.

-- Homer Beanfang (Bats@inbellfry.com), February 07, 2000

Answers

Didn't TPTB say we had plenty of oil for Y2k, so there was no need to fill our gas tanks? Half a tank is plenty? What happened to all that fuel?

If we don't have enough fuel on hand to survive one cold month, just how much risk is JIT subjecting us to? Does this bother anyone else?

-- bw (home@puget.sound), February 07, 2000.

In Iowa:

#1 Fuel Oil is at $1.13/gallon

No shortages reported

(Note: sample size=1)

-- Arnie Rimmer (Arnie_Rimmer@usa.net), February 07, 2000.

Well, it may bother the pollys a lot, but not the rest of us who preped.

-- elskon (elskon@bigfoot.com), February 07, 2000.

H B, My father-in-law owns a heating oil co. He stated, as of yesterday, #2 fuel oil was $2.05/gallon and in extremely limited supply. We reside in the Chesapeake region of the Northeast

-- NoJo (RSKeiper@aol.com), February 07, 2000.

If we don't have enough fuel on hand to survive one cold month, just how much risk is JIT subjecting us to? Does this bother anyone else? -- bw (home@puget.sound), February 07, 2000. Scares the skookum right outta me.

-- pliney the younger (pliney@puget.sound.raining), February 07, 2000.