Just a Little Oil Heat News

Just a little news regarding heating oil

http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKN2611035520080827

NEW YORK, Aug 26 (Reuters) - U.S. heating oil dealers are using new software to weed out clients who may not pay their bills as Americans gear up for another winter of high fuel costs in the world's top consumer.

Heating oil dealers in New York City, Long Island, and Connecticut have turned to real-time information software provided by a consumer reporting agency that allows data-sharing to track delinquent clients -- a more common problem with the rise in prices.

"In many cases, delinquent oil bills don't get posted to the large credit-reporting agencies," said John Maniscalco, executive vice president of the New York Oil Heating Association. "Given the current situation of the industry where bills are large and consumers are getting shut off, they tend to jump from one company to another."

U.S. heating oil futures have shot up more than 60 percent from the same time last year, from $1.98 per gallon to $3.21.

There are going to be a lot of people making the choice between heat, food and medicine this year. It's a dam shame.

Yeah and it's not going to get any better if McCain is elected president.

billw wrote:There are going to be a lot of people making the choice between heat, food and medicine this year. It's a dam shame.

Absolutely agreed!
i think the home heating situation in this country this year will amount to a crisis, deserving of extreme measures by our elected officials. Why not give an incentive for all "alternative" heat sources to help get us off foreign oil, including those sources that may not be "green" enough to be PC right now, but will help many of us survive a cold winter?

Hows about Federal tax credits this year for any alternative heat sources, including but not limited too:

Wood Stoves & firewood
Pellet Stoves & Pellets
Corn stoves & corn


&

Coal Appliances & coal!

In God we trust, all others pay cash!
How about we take back our government, make it smaller and keep our money where it belongs in the first place!

Adamiscold wrote:Yeah and it's not going to get any better if McCain is elected president.

Yup, we need to elect the new Messia because he dumps Heating oil out his ass...and to think the Libs got upset when BO was called the "ONE" in a commercial. He is the "ONE", just watch as he pees champaign into glasses at the convention.

I do a lot of work for elderly and low-income families which is contracted through the state of MA. It breaks my heart to see the elderly, who have payed their debts to society, be left out in the cold!!!
This past Jan. I was in a home owned by a lady in her late 80's. For the first 2 days I was there her boiler did not stop running. It was a veery drafty home, no insulation, and radiators where there shouldn't be (garage and unfinished attic) She told me the oil man showed up every Wednesday and put $400 worth of oil in her tank. . . .EVERY wednesday!!! And that was when oil was $2.50 a gallon? She then informed me that she only received $460 a week from social security. If you do the math. . . .that's not much to live off of.

EnergyAllStars wrote:She told me the oil man showed up every Wednesday and put $400 worth of oil in her tank. . . .EVERY wednesday!!! And that was when oil was $2.50 a gallon? She then informed me that she only received $460 a week from social security. If you do the math. . . .that's not much to live off of.

Man....That is a heart breaking story!

EnergyAllStars wrote:I do a lot of work for elderly and low-income families which is contracted through the state of MA. It breaks my heart to see the elderly, who have payed their debts to society, be left out in the cold!!!
This past Jan. I was in a home owned by a lady in her late 80's. For the first 2 days I was there her boiler did not stop running. It was a veery drafty home, no insulation, and radiators where there shouldn't be (garage and unfinished attic) She told me the oil man showed up every Wednesday and put $400 worth of oil in her tank. . . .EVERY wednesday!!! And that was when oil was $2.50 a gallon? She then informed me that she only received $460 a week from social security. If you do the math. . . .that's not much to live off of.

I think a lot of the elderly (heating with oil) in the north will be moving into subsidized senior centers. I bet it would be cheaper subsidizing their oil bill. I don't thing most people really get it yet, as to how much it will cost to heat with oil this winter. The eye rollers about coal may change their tune, lets hope not, finding rice coal is hard enough now

coalmeister wrote:I think a lot of the elderly (heating with oil) in the north will be moving into subsidized senior centers.

There is almost always a long waiting list to get into those senior centers. Face it.......some people this winter will undoubtedly starve or freeze to death in their own homes......This in the richest country in the world!
Makes my blood boil!

( I must admit........it makes me feel selfish.... sitting here gloating about how warm my family will be this winter & shakes you back into reality. There's allot of pain out there )

I hate to say it but the crisis is caused mostly by laziness and greed. In the old days people spent many a weekend gathering and splitting wood, they insulated their homes, they shoveled coal, they did what it took via hard work to ensure that they would be warm during the winter. When cheap oil arrived on the scene some people spent the weekend at the beach, they chose a life of leisure over a life of work. They traded in their hard work heat for easy heat, all it took was some money. Well now it sucks for them.

e.alleg wrote:In the old days people spent many a weekend gathering and splitting wood, they insulated their homes, they shoveled coal, they did what it took via hard work to ensure that they would be warm during the winter.

I can agree with that relative to the people who are young & strong enough to help themselves, but not everyone is. What do we do with the very young & the very old? Let them freeze or starve to death? This is where government (us..collectively) needs to get involved to assist those that can't (not won't) help themselves.

Devil505 wrote: There is almost always a long waiting list to get into those senior centers. Face it.......some people this winter will undoubtedly starve or freeze to death in their own homes......This in the richest country in the world!
Makes my blood boil!

( I must admit........it makes me feel selfish.... sitting here gloating about how warm my family will be this winter & shakes you back into reality. There's allot of pain out there )

And to think UN peacekeepers recieve oral favors from starving kids in Dafur for a Sandwich.....that also makes my blood boil but ....well ... the UN is...well you know, the greatest. I take care of my family, I give to charity, I don't need no stinking Government agency telling me I must give more, ! I'm done.

I hear you Ed, but what I'm talking about gets back to the very basics of why people live in tribes & villages & form a collective way of housing, feeding, defending & assisting teach other as a group. That is the basic idea of all government......Banding together to help each other! WE are the government, & we need to stop thinking of "The Government" as an external enemy........it should be US!

WE are the government, & we need to stop thinking of "The Government" as an external enemy........it should be US!

So what you are saying here is people should stop looking to the government for a hand-out? What a novel idea, Devil.

Tell that to all the people I saw in the PriceRite in Pawtucket on the 1st of August, the day their "Free Food Cards" were replenished. Some of them had 2 carts loaded with food. I'm glad I pay taxes on my earnings to help them along. I noticed they were all wearing nice clothes and jewelery, and had cell phones as well. Maybe it was an isolated incident, but I was in Woonsocket that day as well, and saw the same thing.

Unfortunately the Liberal ideology of redistribution of wealth has too many people looking to the government to "save" them. This in addition to all the lazy people collecting government benefits instead of getting a job adds up to quite a problem.

I suppose there was a time when "the people" helped out the less fortunate among us. The free hand-outs have created a society that depends on those very hand-outs, the government has become a victim of the very system it created.

That's too deep a thought to possibly have come from my tiny brain.....I'm scared....Must go get another Yuengling.