The New Energy Crisis: A Survival Guide

According to the federal government’s Energy Information Administration (EIA), the price you pay for natural gas (the most common heating fuel in America) is likely to jump 7.5 percent over last winter. The price of home heating oil, commonly used in the Northeast, will rise 17 percent this winter. And don’t think you’re off the hook if you heat your home with electricity, the choice in much of the South and Southwest. Wired heat is predicted to be up nearly 2 percent from last winter.

Now for the really chilling news.

Those projections are based on average winter temperatures. “A really cold winter could drive prices much higher,” says Dave Costello, who monitors short-term energy rates at the EIA. Talk about a squeeze play: For instance, you will pay more for the natural gas itself and burn more of it to boot — perhaps 33 percent higher if the mercury plunges just 10 percent.

Reader’s Digest