For the last two months, the heat of summer has pushed thoughts of cold winter days from our minds. But now that Labor Day is upon us and school is about to begin, the undeniable russet tint appearing on leaves reminds us that heating season will start in about a month’s time.
Some who have oil heat have already taken their first delivery of “black gold” and negotiating the best deal on price per gallon has become an obsession for many. Those who heat with natural gas may have yet to learn what their cost will be this year, making budgeting difficult.
According to the Energy Information Administration, a statistical arm of the federal Department of Energy, heating oil this year is expected to average $4.34 a gallon compared with $3.31 last season, an increase of 31 percent. Natural gas prices will average $15.58 per thousand cubic feet, up 23 percent from last year’s average of $12.72. Those figures at least provide a basis for determining if you are getting a comparative “deal” on your heating oil or to estimate natural gas costs.
The fear of a cold, snowy winter fills homeowners already living on the economic edge with dread as they anticipate making decisions to do without other necessities to pay for heat. Budgets already cut to the bone resist further adjustments. It’s not about doing without lattes and manicures, but about keeping the house at 60 degrees (or less), foregoing a new winter coat, or finding ways to feed the family as economically as possible.
Just the threat of a storm in the Gulf of Mexico is enough to spike oil and gas prices, raising the price of everything else as well. The fuel crisis is so out of control that a day does not pass without Americans voicing their frustration with a government that is more concerned with partisan wrangling than with working together to find a solution.
If worrying about energy costs on the home front was not enough, residents of local towns must also worry about how they will pay for keeping schools warm and local governments operating. Will municipal employees be wearing their coats at their desks this year? Will students shiver as they study? Will the snowplows make fewer passes on streets to conserve fuel for police and fire apparatus?
Already, Norwood’s interim Superintendent of Schools John Moretti has warned that his calculations project a $197,000 deficit in the schools’ heating budget. While a number of options for addressing the situation have been suggested, it is likely that Town Meeting will have to make a decision when it convenes in the fall. Other departments’ requests may have to be set aside to insure that the town’s fuel needs are met.
It’s going to be a long, cold winter, a winter when municipalities are caught between diminishing state funding and taxpayers who can barely afford to take care of their families, let alone pay more to local governments.
But resilient New Englanders will do what they have always done in the winter: Put their backs to the wind, hunker down and dig their way through it. And when the national election rolls around in November, the heat will be on, not just in our homes and schools, but also on those who are running for office. The heat will be on the candidates to fix the economic mess in America so that Americans can stop focusing on basic survival and focus instead on more lofty goals.
Norwood resident Candace Leary’s Midpoints column appears Mondays in the Transcript.
