Looking to the cold

It may be 100º here, but that’s nothing compared to what tempers are going to be come this winter, when people start worrying about home heating oil. In the Northeastern United States, over six million homes use heating oil. Last October, the average cost per gallon of No. 2 heating oil in Massachusetts was $2.32. At the end of the season, in March, that cost had risen to $3.81. How much do you want to bet that by next season it’ll be up to six dollars or more? I’m no expert, but I wonder if this is a looming crisis for the region, and one that Hugo Chavez isn’t going to be able to bail us out of.