Paying to keep warm
www.thereporteronline.com BRIAN ROSSITER , Staff Writer 02/25/2003
Bob DiFabrizio, a driver for Walton©ˆs in Lansdale, hauls hose along a walkway while making a heating oil delivery to a residence on Mount Vernon Street in Lansdale. The high cost of heating your home this winter boils down to stone-cold temperatures and politics.
Scott Walton‚ treasurer of Clyde S. Walton Inc.‚ a Lansdale air-conditioning and heating service firm‚ said his company is paying 225 percent more for refinery oil than it did this time last year.
The shortage is so dire that on two days a week for the past month‚ his company wasn’t able to get oil at its refinery‚ he said.
What’s drying up the oil supply and sending costs to keep warm to dizzying levels is this winter’s below-normal temperatures‚ the oil strike in Venezuela and the lingering threat of the United States going to war against Iraq.
“When one of those things happen‚ we see the price go up‚” Walton said. “When three things happen‚ it’s just difficult.”
Plain numbers tell the story about why folks need more oil this winter. From Nov. 1 to Friday‚ the average temperature in the Philadelphia area has been 35 degrees‚ said Bernie Rayno‚ senior meteorologist at AccuWeather in State College. For the same period in 2001-02‚ the mean temperature was 44.3 degrees.
It’s also snowed 10 times as much in this fall and winter compared with 2001-02‚ Rayno said.
“It’s been colder and wetter‚” he said. “It’s like night and day.”
Nearly half of Walton’s customers entered into fixed-price plans in the summer‚ Walton said.
The rest are feeling the burden of having to pay more to heat their homes‚ but the company has lessened the financial sting by passing along only about half the increases it has faced.
Ed Cardell‚ manager of home services at Souderton-based Moyer & Son Home Services‚ said his customers are using about 20 percent more fuel this winter.
With most Moyer customers having locked into price agreements by mid-July‚ few are stuck with more pricey heating bills now‚ he said.
“Very few customers are affected by a price increase‚” he said.