washingtontimes.com By Hil Anderson UPI Chief Energy Correspondent

 LOS ANGELES, Feb. 7 (UPI) -- Energy prices will remain on the high side for the near future as cold winter weather boosts natural gas demand at the same time world tensions keep the oil markets on edge, analysts predicted Friday 
 The gloomy forecast from the Energy Information Administration appeared to be on the right track Friday as the New York Mercantile Exchange saw crude prices top $35 per barrel while heating oil futures surged to the highest level in two years. 
 The reasons for the bullishness, which the EIA expected to continue through the winter, boiled down to fears of a war in the Gulf interrupting imports and colder weather in the Midwest and along the East Coast cutting further into reserves of heating oil and gas. 
 Although there has been no actual shortage of oil thus far, the sentiment among traders is to prudently make certain they don't get caught short if the United States and Iraq come to blows in the Gulf at the same time Venezuela's oil industry is handcuffed by ongoing labor and political problems. 
 "World oil markets will likely remain tight through most of 2003, as petroleum inventories and global spare production capacity continue to dwindle amid blasts of cold weather and constrained output from Venezuela," the EIA concluded. "OPEC's efforts to increase output to make up for lower Venezuela output has reduced global spare production capacity to only 2 million barrels per day, leaving little room to make up for unexpected supply or demand surprises." 
 The desire to stock up on oil appeared to become more intense Friday as prices jumped in all NYMEX sectors. NYMEX saw March heating oil climb Friday to a 23-month high of $1.113 per gallon before settling at $1.095, up an impressive 6.86 cents on the day. 
 March crude climbed 96 cents to $35.12 per barrel on NYMEX after the International Petroleum Exchange in London posted a 90-cent gain to $32.34 per barrel. 
 Other NYMEX prices included March gasoline, up 3.87 cents at $1.067 per gallon, and natural gas jumping 21.5 cents to $6.043 per million BTU. 
 The increases came as the EIA estimated that natural gas demand this winter would be 8 percent higher than last year while gas in storage has been running 17 percent under the 5-year average. 
 "By the end of this January, working gas in storage was about 35 percent lower than at the end of January 2002 and 17 percent below the previous 5-year average," the EIA said. "Considering not only the currently high world oil prices but also the low storage levels, natural gas prices are likely to remain relatively high through February and perhaps well into spring." 
 The demand for oil was projected to increase 3 percent over the next two years on the assumption that the nation's economy will grow and increased air travel will boost demand for jet fuel. 
 "Spot prices for heating fuels surged as crude oil and natural gas prices rose rapidly in the face of the Venezuelan oil export cutoff and sharply falling levels of domestic natural gas in storage," the EIA said. "Some of these commodity price changes are still working their way to the consumer level." 
 The prospect of higher retail heating oil prices in the Northeast prompted a consumer group to ask the state of New York on Friday to investigate possible price manipulation, stating that the lack of a physical shortage of oil undermines the justification for higher prices. 
 "It looks to us as though there are a few large players in the market that are using the anxiety over Iraq to create an artificial shortage in the New York region," accused Tim Irving, executive director of HEAT USA. "If a few big sellers are able to keep their oil from reaching the market, even for a few days, they can foster anxiety, and sell into that fear at a huge profit." 
 The Pacific Northwest Bonneville Power Administration said Friday that it would seek a rate increase for the hydroelectric electricity it produces, due not only to cold temperatures but also due to a lack of seasonal rains. 
 "We held off proposing higher rates as long as we could, hoping that water and economic conditions would improve," explained BPA Administrator Steve Wright. "Neither has happened. We have had some success with cost management, but much more needs to be done."

Posted on Sat, Feb. 08, 2003 www.charlotte.com Carolinas see cost jump almost a dime in month DIANNE WHITACRE Staff Writer

Gasoline prices in the Carolinas have jumped almost a dime in the past month, and one analyst says the likelihood of war in the Mideast could send them to near $2 a gallon.

Pump prices nationwide are at the highest level in 17 months, since the terrorist attacks in New York and near Washington.

On Friday, major suppliers, including Exxon and Phillips raised prices at their terminals by 5 to 7 cents a gallon -- a rise that will soon show up at local stations.

"In the next 90 days, we could see fuel price swings (upward) of 10 to 15 cents a gallon each week," said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Pricing Information Service, a leading tracker of the petroleum industry.

North Carolina's average price for a gallon of regular grade is $1.518, up more than 9 cents in the past month. South Carolina has seen an 8 cent increase, to $1.454, according to AAA Carolinas and OPIS.

Currently, Charlotte has some of the lowest gas prices in the state, averaging $1.489 for regular, a nickel cheaper than Raleigh and 3 cents less than Greensboro.

The U.S. average is $1.557 a gallon, up 9.5 cents in the past month. It's $1.425 in Atlanta (up 9.4 cents); $1.63 in Washington, D.C. (up 5 cents); $1.704 in Los Angeles (up 10.5 cents), and $1.647 in Chicago (up 12 cents).

Jackie Andrews of Charlotte's Coulwood neighborhood paid $1.49 a gallon Friday at a South Boulevard station.

"I know it was at least a nickel cheaper last week," she said. "I don't need a full tank, but I wanted to fill up before it went up again."

Unrest in the Mideast could affect gasoline supplies for many months, said Stanley Black, an economics professor at UNC Chapel Hill. "I'm afraid we are in for a long siege of increasing prices."

The U.S. Department of Energy says colder-than-normal weather and reduced oil supplies from Venezuela also have fueled the higher prices.

The United States imports 55 percent of its petroleum. If war begins, shipping costs from the Mideast will rise, analysts say.

Crude oil is selling at $34.50 a barrel, up $12 in a year. The price could reach $40 a barrel if war breaks out with Iraq, said Mark Mahoney of OPIS.

Wholesale gasoline prices also are surging. A month ago they were 85 cents a gallon in the Southeast and now are $1.05 a gallon, said Fred Rozell, retail pricing director with OPIS.

Those higher prices show up at the pump about 10 days later, he said, when cheaper gas sells out.

Gas prices generally fall slightly at this time of year as refineries switch from heating-oil production to gasoline.

Heating oil is up 37 cents a gallon in the past year, including almost 4 cents in the past week, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, and averages $1.53 a gallon nationwide.

The cold winter increased demand for heating oil, which reduces gasoline production.

Dianne Whitacre: (704) 358-5099; dwhitacre@charlotteobserver.com

www.waff.com

So are rising gasoline prices putting your household budget in the tank? Gas station visits are getting costlier by the day.

News flash: gas prices are going up...  "It's about 25 cents more than I'm used to paying."

from Los Angeles... To New Jersey... "Theyr'e outta control."

From St. Louis to Tennessee you're forking over more at the pump and most drivers say they can't figure out why.

"It always has something to do with what's going on in the Middle East. You know what's goin on...same stuff that's been going on for the last...ten years."

Gas prices have increased 8% since the start of the year.

According to AAA the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded is now a buck fifty five for regular.

The cheapest gas is in Georgia, as low as $1.42.  And on the high end, taking out Alaska and Hawaii, where gasoline is always more expensive in New York gas can be as high as $1.81, $1.82 in Connecticut, $1.88 in California. Though we found it just a hair shy of two bucks.

"One of the reasons is that the Venezuelan situation really impacted ... our supplies."

The strike in Venezuela is over and exports will now increase...yet there are other issues as well... for some reason demand, which is usually down this time of year... is up...

Bill O'Grady with A.G. Edwards said, "Now we don't know if that means more consumers are driving or we're starting to see gasoline horded throughout the rest of the distribution system."

Demand has increased at the same time refineries are seasonally offline for maintenance, cutting production. But that doesn't really matter because crude inventories are especially tight.

Of course, the fear of war with Iraq is hanging over everything.

During the last war with Iraq Mark Mahoney says crude shot up to $40 a barrel.

That changed once it became clear the U.S. would quickly win. But Bill O'Grady says if we go to war again, there are other variables to worry about. 

"Like Iraq torches it's own oil wells like Iraq is somehow successful in hurting production in the other gulf countries, like we go to test the strategic petroleum reserve and we find out it doesn't quite work as well as we thought it would."

All these factors, the fear of war, low inventories, less output from refineries, unusually high demand: all happening as we head into the time of year when gas prices start to rise anyhow for the spring and summer vacations. 

"We were planning on going on vacation in July...going to drive down to Virginia...but we're not gonna do that."

"We really have the perfect storm of influences."

"Now what I do now is I go buy half tanks, instead of a whole tank I get a half a tank...don't feel so bad."

www.zwire.com By:Katy Ciamaricone 02/05/2003 Her mission: To get people thinking.

One of her signs disputed the Bush administration's rejection of an international agreement to reduce greenhouse emissions. The other read "No war for oil."

Sherman, an Elkton resident, said her rally was part of a nationwide initiative planned at sites around the country Tuesday that included several student organizations and Greenpeace. She decided to participate after she received an e-mail message urging people to join in.

"I heard in Baltimore they were planning to plaster gas stations with skull and crossbones, encouraging people to get their oil from Venezuela," she said. "Because war is not taking place in Venezuela."

The perch on which she stood in front of the Route 279 truck stop is prime real estate when attention is what you're after, Sherman explained. She often shifted her stance to the left so her signs faced truckers pulling into the depot, or right to give departing drivers some food for thought for the long road ahead.

"This is one of the most well-traveled spots on the East Coast, with truck drivers and travelers coming through all the time," Sherman said.

A trucker waited to yield onto Route 279, craning his neck to read Sherman's message, as she continued: "People have been mostly driving by with amused smiles on their faces. Most of them are probably thinking, 'There's just another ex-hippie at it again.'"

Sherman says she's "flexible" when it comes to picking a political party. "I generally don't endorse Republicans," she said. "I was tempted to vote for (Green Party candidate) Ralph Nader - I talked my mother into voting for him - then at the last minute, someone convinced me to vote for (Democrat) Al Gore, because of his stance on equal rights."

This is not the first time Sherman, 50, has protested against U.S. policies with foreign nations. During the 1960s, she saw news about U.S. soldiers who destroyed a South Vietnamese village, leaving dozens of slain civilians, during the My Lai massacre. And though her brother had enlisted in the Army and was sent to Vietnam, Sherman was compelled to travel to Mount Vernon to demonstrate with fellow teen-agers whose own government had disappointed them.

Times have since changed, but not necessarily for the better, Sherman claimed. "The world is now reaching nuclear capacity and the entire planet is in danger. If (enemies) drop a bomb on the East Coast, there is a mountain in Nevada that would keep Bush and his family safe. What's he got to lose?"

So in a check-mate measure, Sherman figured she had nothing to lose by sharing her anti-war opinions with the world - or, at least, those passing by Elkton's Truck Stop of America.

www.seacoastonline.com By Associated Press

BOSTON - Attorney General Thomas Reilly is urging managers of New England’s power grid to postpone a plan to create a new method of operating the wholesale electric market.

Reilly, in a letter to Independent System Operator-New England, said the new plan could cause power rates to jump - as much as 14.2 percent in greater Boston.

ISO-New England is scheduled to vote on the plan Thursday.

"Now is clearly not the time to burden consumers with more costs that are beyond their control," Reilly wrote. "Fuel prices, both natural gas and oil, are at very high levels, and may rise even more with the threat of war in the Middle East."

The new plan will set fairer prices for electricity throughout New England, according to Ellen Foley, a spokeswoman for ISO-New England.

Under the current system, all of New England is treated as one wholesale power market, with the costs of "electrical congestion" in areas like greater Boston and southwestern Connecticut, spread to electric ratepayers across the region. The new plan would break New England into eight regional markets, each with its own wholesale price.

Home heating oil prices rise 5 cents a gallon

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - Home heating oil prices across Maine rose an additional five cents per gallon over the past week as the average price statewide reached $1.45, the State Planning Office reported Tuesday.

The price is 34 cents higher than at the same time last year.

Kerosene prices also went up a nickel a gallon, to an average of $1.68.

Cold weather, labor strife in Venezuela and the prospect of war in Iraq have combined to push prices to near-record levels, the planning office said. Falling inventories of heating oil, gasoline and other refined products could mean more increases in the near future, it added.