Expect Heating Costs To Jump 15% This Winter

Heating U.S. homes with oil this winter will cost a painful $450 more than a year ago, another slap to families already reeling from high gasoline and food costs and fearful of losing their heat because of unpaid bills.

Here’s a compilation of news articles from today discussing heating prices this winter:

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Heating U.S. homes with oil this winter will cost a painful $450 more than a year ago, another slap to families already reeling from high gasoline and food costs and fearful of losing their heat because of unpaid bills.

Gas, propane and electricity for home heating will go up as well, but not as much, the government says.

The price of natural gas, the most widely used heating fuel used in half of the nation’s households, will increase an average of 18 percent, or $1,010 over the heating season — about $155 more than last winter. People who heat with propane or electricity will see a 10 percent to 11 percent increase in costs, the agency said.

BLOOMBERG

West Texas Intermediate crude oil, the U.S. benchmark, will average $112 a barrel in 2008, the Energy Department said in its monthly Short-Term Energy Outlook. The forecast is down 3.3 percent from $115.81 a barrel estimated last month, the report from the department’s Energy Information Administration showed.

CONSUMER AFFAIRS

Forecasts as of October 7, 2008 for average winter heating expenditures are:

• $1,010 for households heating with natural gas, an 18 percent increase

• $2,388 for households heating with oil, a 23 percent increase

• $1,861 for households heating with propane, an 11 percent increase

• $947 for households heating with electricity, a 10 percent increase

REUTERS

Heating oil and natural gas customers face the steepest price jumps, although double-digit percentage increases also are in store for users of propane and electricity, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in its latest winter forecast.