As many of you know, I live in Massachusetts. The farmers almanac says that this winter season is going to be a doozy (colder, more snows, especially in Feb).
There is some rumblings amongst the MA state gov re: "warning" people that their oil heating bills are going to be "bad" this year but I have not heard of any solutions. I think congress just underfunded LIHEAP so dont look for federal help. This is simply talk talk talk, where are the initiatives?
I need help envisioning how this all might play out.
--jump--
There will be successive waves of people from low income to higher scale incomes that will hit a point this winter after which they can no longer afford to pay for the next tank of heating oil (our oil companies in this region stopped giving credit some time ago, how many people will have spac eon their CCs to take up the difference?), let alone feed themselves.
Many of our oil companies have gone out of business so our in-state oil stock piles have also been reduced. That increases the brittle nature of our situation.
Somebody help me here.
I am having a hard time envisioning what the state gov COULD do with 100,000s of people and families that have no money for heating oil and who cant just up and leave because their jobs are HERE. You cant ask all those people to sleep in school gyms (and who is going to pay to heat those school gyms? School budgets are already overshot by many many 1000s of $$ in all towns)
Massachusetts and the Northeast is wholly NOT resilient to this and I simply can not imagine how this breakdown will happen without serious societal upheaval (tho even that is hard to see, Americans really do NOT take to the street and it will be colder out there in the whipping winds than huddled inside a cold house)
What could the contingency plan be? My frustration stems from the obvious nature of the coming problem and how there really is no way to address this issue unless you bus 100,000s of bankrupt freezing people down to South Texas to warm climate refugee camps.
What then, after surviving winter? You are left with no money, HUGE debt, how can people eat? Pay mortgages? If I can imagine this part, I am sure others can too.
I am thinking, beyond the unthinkable nature of winter in the northeast this year, there will be a sea change in the way people view the NE as inhabitable year round.
We, me and my family, have been living without oil all summer long and minimal oil for years (we use an in-house woodstove). This has been the summer of no showers - pure misery .. warm water splashes to get clean (I have three small kids and I work full time - clean has to happen).
We will be fine because of the great loving-kindness of a family member who has helped us get the money for a high efficiency wood fired boiler that will heat our house and our water. It used half the amount of fuel and can take girnormous uncut logs as fuel.
Some people think that pellet stoves will get them through but they will find the cost of pellets shooting through the roof very quickly and also that their efficiencies will be so low that they will go through tons of pellets like they are a few buckets.
Other people think they can fire up ancient coal fired stoves that have been lurking in their Victorian basements for many decades. I think we will hear too many stories about carbon monoxide this winter, too many to bear.
Once the Olympics are done, we will be back on the road to hell as China’s industries roar back to fossil fuel eating life. India’s productivity has been suppressed during this "quiet time" in China. India too will roar back to life. Soon that new Indian micro-car will hit the market and the Indian Car Parity Disaster will be well on its way.
So, no, those lose crude prices you see right now, they are VERY temporary.
Someone, anyone, can you imagine how this is going to play out this winter in the Northeast?
I would love to hear it.