Cost of warm, stocked house surges

It’s in everything from sandwich bags, microwaves and stereos to DVDs, cars and computers. Even the adhesive on shampoo labels and the caulking around bathtubs across America depends on it.

Oil and natural gas are the base materials for chemicals and raw materials that show up in more than 90 percent of the consumer goods and packaging Americans take home from the mall. And just like the gas fueling American cars, those fossil fuel-based raw materials have gotten more expensive and harder to get in the wake of Hurricane Katrina as a result of the temporary loss of dozens of key chemical plants along the Gulf Coast.

Baltimore Sun