Energy News

A furnace which burns a mixture of biofuel and low sulfur heating oil is shown in Westwood, Massachusetts November 12, 2007. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)

Household winter heat costs to rise 15 percent

Reuters - Tue Oct 7, 9:15 AM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Average household heating fuel costs this winter will be 15 percent higher than last year, with heating oil and natural gas users taking the biggest hit due to more expensive crude oil and colder weather than last winter, the government's top energy forecasting agency said Tuesday.

  • Energy Department warns of higher heating costs AP - Tue Oct 7, 8:39 AM ET

    WASHINGTON - Although global oil prices have plummeted, the cost of heating your home this winter will be a lot more expensive, especially for households that depend on fuel oil, the Energy Department predicted Tuesday.

  • In this November 14, 2004 file photo, an Iraqi boy runs near an oil pipeline fire in Taji, Iraq, following an attack by insurgents. Representatives of 35 international oil companies will meet with Iraqi government officials in London on Monday to discuss the bidding process for eight enormous oil and gas fields. If the contracts are approved, they could lead to the biggest foreign stake in Iraq since the industry was nationalized more than 30 years ago. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)
    Nigerian conflict a warning for Big Oil in Iraq AP - Tue Oct 7, 6:21 AM ET

    BAGHDAD - Recurrent violence in oil-rich parts of Nigeria may provide a sobering lesson for oil companies hoping to work in Iraq — a place that is much more dangerous despite the fact that attacks are at their lowest level in more than four years.

  • Large windmills and solar panels are seen Monday, Oct. 6, 2008, in Atlantic City. The local utilities authority's wind farm consists of five windmills that generate 7.5 megawatts, enough energy to power approximately 2,500 homes. It powers a wastewater treatment plant, with surplus energy going to the area power grid. Last week, Garden State Offshore Energy, a joint venture of PSE&G Renewable Generation and Deepwater Wind, was chosen to build a $1 billion, 345 megawatt wind farm in the ocean about 16 miles southeast of Atlantic City. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)
    NJ: We'll become a world leader in wind power AP - Tue Oct 7, 4:17 AM ET

    ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - New Jersey is powering up an ambitious plan to become a world leader in the use of wind-generated energy.

  • Greenpeace activists paint the slogan 'Quit Coal' in English and Spanish onto the side of the Windsor Adventure, a coal cargo ship from Colombia moored up in Gijon on October 5, 2008. Greenpeace activists boarded a cargo ship carrying Colombian coal at a port in northern Spain on Monday in protest at Spain's reliance on the highly polluting energy source.(AFP/HO/File/Jiri Rezac)
    Greenpeace activists board coal ship off Spanish coast AFP - Mon Oct 6, 1:23 PM ET

    MADRID (AFP) - Greenpeace activists boarded a cargo ship carrying Colombian coal at a port in northern Spain on Monday in protest at Spain's reliance on the highly polluting energy source.

  • Natgas winter costs seen up 10 to 30 percent Reuters - Mon Oct 6, 9:29 AM ET

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - While U.S. natural gas supplies will be plentiful this winter, gas heating costs for households will still increase 10 to 30 percent compared with last winter, the American Gas Association said on Monday.

  • Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., center, with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, right and Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., left, Sen. Max Baucus, R-Mont., second from left, and Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., speak at news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2008. Senators loaded the economic rescue bill with tax breaks and other sweeteners before passing it by a wide margin, 74-25, a month before the presidential and congressional elections.(AP Photo/Lawrence Jackson)
    Tax breaks big and small sweeten financial bailout AP - Fri Oct 3, 9:15 PM ET

    WASHINGTON - Millions of taxpayers, thousands of businesses and groups as diverse as solar power developers and natural disaster victims will see tax relief with the House vote Friday to approve and send to the president a $700 billion financial rescue plan.

  • An oil pipeline being laid down. Russian environmental groups launched legal action against an oil and gas project led by US energy giant Exxon for threatening critically endangered whales in Russia's far east.(AFP/File/Denis Sinyakov)
    Exxon-led project faces Russian lawsuit over endangered whales AFP - Fri Oct 3, 9:55 AM ET

    MOSCOW (AFP) - Russian environmental groups launched Friday legal action against an oil and gas project led by US energy giant Exxon for threatening critically endangered whales in Russia's far east.

  • Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., left, and Republican vice presidential candidate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin face off during a vice presidential debate at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., Thursday, Oct. 2, 2008. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)
    Some facts adrift in veep debate AP - Fri Oct 3, 7:58 AM ET

    WASHINGTON - Republican Sarah Palin criticized a version of a Barack Obama health care plan that doesn't exist and Democrat Joe Biden clung to a misleading charge about Republicans and big oil when the two clashed in the vice presidential debate Thursday.

  • Natural gas for winter heating should be plentiful AP - Thu Oct 2, 12:55 PM ET

    WASHINGTON - Despite supply interruptions caused by Hurricane Gustav, there should be plenty of natural gas available for heating this winter and prices are likely to stay about the same as last winter, natural gas producers said Thursday.