Some in U.S. replace oil heat with wood stoves

BOSTON (Reuters) – It’s summer in the United States, but many Americans are already fretting about winter.

Record prices for home heating oil are rippling across America’s northern regions, stoking demand for wood stoves and other alternatives, and forcing some heating oil companies out of business.

In New England, which has the nation’s highest rates of heating oil use, homeowners are bracing for a near doubling in the cost to fill home oil storage tanks compared with last year.

The surging cost has spread alarm among heating oil distributors, mainly small and often family-run businesses. Their profit margins already squeezed, they now face the prospect of taking on unprecedented amounts of debt to buy fuel for winter.

Reuters