Hurricanes and Energy

[drscott]

excessor's grandma, aunt, and mother are holed up in his mom's house in Sugarland (west of Houston) and seem to be in good shape to ride out Rita, since it's tracking further east now.

I filled up my gas tank at $2.91 -- this should hold me for a month. Damage to the petro complex in the Houston area is expected to be severe, though not as severe as it looked yesterday. Shortages of refined products and a price spike are very likely. The worse problem is natural gas, which looks to be up 50-100% from last heating season. The US relies almost entirely on domestic and Canadian production, since siting LNG terminals has been politically impossible and low prices until recent years made it uneconomic to import. The under-Gulf network of pipelines which supplies a big chunk of US gas will be partly shut down for some time.

So this is the time to make any improvements to reduce home heating costs. Our bill will be about $1500 for heating, up from $900 last year, and it would have been higher if we hadn't put in double glazing. There are still things to be done, like an atrium skylight and some small windows.

Comments

[furfairy.livejournal.com]

Wow 2.91 is cheap! Did you do that in the south bay? The station here in Piedmont is 2.99. I noticed when I was driving ot Fremont for school that the gas down there is cheaper than it is in Oakland.

[excessor.livejournal.com]

$2.91 is about right here in the South Bay. On the peninsula, it's about $2.99.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Ayup. Cheapest station I know of right now is on Bernardo (Sunnyvale) just south of El Camino, at 2.89. That's where I filled up this morning. That'll hold me for a couple weeks.

[excessor.livejournal.com]

That station is very near our house!

I filled up last night at the ARCO located on Shoreline at Middlefield. It, too, was $2.899.

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

Gasoline prices around DC have been dropping rapidly over the past 10 days. On Tuesday, I filled up for $2.679, the lowest I've seen in a month. I'm planning to top up my tank again before the weekend in anticipation of rate hikes.

And I really have to put some serious planning time into how we're going to go about re-insulating the attic before winter. sigh

[dr-scott.livejournal.com]

It's quick and easy to hire someone to do it. Just be sure they put in a vapor barrier on the inside! Your utility or local government may have a program to help evaluate and find a contractor. If you do it yourself (pretty easy if the attic floor is accessible and your house is new enough to have standard stud spacings) beware the fiberglass; wear masks and cover up all exposed skin.

/ask mr. handyperson