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By Brian O'Keefe, senior editor The case for buying oil stocks Investor Daily: Even with gas prices in free fall and the global economy sputtering, now may be the time to bulk up on oil shares (if you dare). Last Updated: November 21, 2008: 7:26 AM ET NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Last week, the Paris-based International Energy Agency released its World Energy Outlook 2008 - a 578-page book full of future supply, demand, and price estimates which this year also included an eagerly-awaited study of 800 of the world's largest oil fields. Here's the executive summary: Buy oil stocks. Considering that the price of oil has plummeted from $147 a barrel in early July to below $50 and that the global economic slowdown is putting a major damper on demand, that might not seem like such a good idea. But as the IEA study makes clear, the long-term supply and demand picture for oil continues to favor higher prices. Maybe much higher. The report estimates that energy demand will grow 1.6% Read More ... Reference: The original Fortune Magazine article can be viewed here: | |
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Berlin Reporter - November 12, 2008 by Sally Manikian, staff writer GORHAM — The continuing fluctuations in the price of oil has many individuals, businesses, and public buildings looking to ways to cut fuel costs. With increasing demand for alternative energy, there are now a variety of options available. SAU 20 has been in negotiations with International WoodFuels (IWF) for a pellet boiler for the Middle-High School (GMHS). The boiler would be installed free of charge. The cost is a 10- year energy service agreement that holds GMHS to purchase metered energy through wood pellets from a IWF facility. SAU 20 had been researching their options for biomass, when IWF approached them with this offer, said Superintendent Paul Bousquet. With a newly insulated roof, the school district wanted to be “prudent” about the next step in choosing what kind of energy to put in the building. “When you’re paying $3 for oil, there has to be a better way to save the town and the taxpayers so Read More ... | |
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Please click on the link to read the attached PDF of this newsletter article. Attachment: 25 x '25 Newsletter 11-08 | |
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Report warns that average 2009 oil bill for Mass. household could top $3,000 Massachusetts residents who heat their homes with natural gas or oil could end up paying nearly $1 billion more this year than they did in 2007, about a 30 percent increase, according to a University of Massachusetts report set to be released today. "It's a tremendous amount of money out of people's pockets," said Robin Sherman, the report's lead author. "People can cut back on [heating] to some extent if it gets too expensive, but there's obviously a floor beyond which they can't go to keep themselves in their homes without freezing." The increase will have an especially dramatic impact on the nearly 1 million households that are heated with oil, which now sells for about $4.70 a gallon, up from $2.59 a year ago, according to the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources. Heating costs are expected to keep rising, the report says. The state's average household oil bill next year could top $3,000, according to the report by the UMass Donahue Institute, a university think tank. All told, consumers can expect to spend $4.45 billion for gas and oil heat in 2009 - a $469 million increase from 2008. Sherman said the cost of heating a home depends on factors such as the constantly changing price of oil - which some analysts believe is being driven by speculation - and predictions of an unusually cold winter, which could cause prices to spike even higher than they are now. Natural gas customers als Read More ... |
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If the Senate could summon some wisdom, it would interrupt its mud wrestling over partisan placebos for the gas crisis long enough to debate something real: emergency help for the nation's poorest families who face skyrocketing home heating costs this winter. The Democratic leadership is wisely aiming for a procedural vote in the next day or two that would free up time to debate a badly needed measure to double the existing Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program to $5.1 billion. With 50 co-sponsors, including 12 Republicans, the measure is a must-pass priority if Congress is to have any credibility in facing the energy crisis with something more than the hot air of campaign rhetoric. Utility analysts warn that the price of heating oil could double this winter in the hardest-hit regions, while natural-gas costs could shoot up 50 percent. This can only mean a deepening crisis for the poorest Americans — the disabled and retired on fixed incomes and impoverished families with child Read More ... | |
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By TUX TURKEL, Staff Writer Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram Northern Utilities asks to increase its summer price and likely will seek a similar hike this winter. Under current summer rates, a typical household that uses gas to heat water, cook food and dry clothes pays $92 a month. The dominant distributor of natural gas in southern Maine is asking state regulators for a midsummer rate increase of 17 percent, a prelude to what are expected to be even higher gas costs during the heating season. Northern Utilities projects that natural gas rates for home customers this winterwill be 15 percent to 20 percent higher than last year. The company also doesn't rule out the need to seek another rate hike beyond that projected increase. The increases are necessary, Northern Utilities argues in its filing to the Maine Public Utilities Commission, because the company is not collecting enough money from ratepayers to cover higher-priced gas. Worldwide demand for natural Read More ... Reference: MaineToday.com | |
