Residents can reduce heating costs despite rising fuel prices.
Byline: Joyce McMahon COLUMN: AS I SEE IT This week's survey of statewide heating oil prices conducted by the Massachusetts Division of Energy Resources showed the highest average price yet - $3.27 per gallon - 85 cents higher than last year. Propane is also at...

Bracing for the cold; Area's dependence on oil heat will be its Achilles' heel this winter.
Byline: Martin Luttrell The following correction was published Nov. 7, 2007 and Nov. 11, 2007: Crowley Fuel Co. Inc. of North Brookfield offers a price cap program for home heating oil but not fixed price contracts. Because of a reporter's error, the company's heating oil...

A storm of greed.
After hurricanes comes the cold, and with heating oil prices leaping up 30 percent in the Northeast, you better have a winter survival strategy in place. Put the toddlers to bed in double layers of bunny suits, with mittens attached. Ramp up grandma's chondroitin sulfate...

Business briefs.
COLUMN: BUSINESS BRIEFS TELEGRAM & GAZETTE Bloomberg Index Central Massachusetts -0.59 194.86 Volume: 59,489,167 Up: 12 Down: 13 Unchanged: 4 gainer: Waters Corp. $79.97 +$1.04 (Volume of...

Warming Trend.
How to Get Your Electricity Bill Out of Hot Water Officials at Yosemite National Park in California aren't worried about this winter's soaring heating oil prices. The park's government-built employee housing is kept warm at night by a solar water heater. It's the same at the headquarters...

Price controls: making a bad situation worse.
ITEM: Joan Claybrook, president of the activist group Public Citizen, issued a statement on September 1 reading in part: "In the wake of skyrocketing gasoline and oil prices after Hurricane Katrina--both as a result of speculation on Wall Street and product shortages--President Bush and Congress should enact temporary, adjustable...

Holiday season crucial to the economy.
Each year the ritual is repeated. Starting officially with the day after Thanksgiving, millions of people flock to stores to spend billions of dollars on gifts, decorations, and merriment. The wave of purchasing is so large and dependable that the day has been called "Black Friday" because historically many...

Winds of change.
It is possible to reduce energy use, but most people need an economic incentive. Faced with a huge jump in heating oil prices, Americans cut their home use of fossil fuel by 25 percent between 1980 and 1985. When the energy crisis eased, their consumption went right back up again....

Welcome warmth; La Nina to deliver milder winter, experts say.
Byline: Bill Fortier The first days of December have brought snow, sleet, freezing rain, cold weather and high winds. Ice has formed on rivers and ponds, and a light blanket of snow covers the countryside. That's much different from last December, when warm weather, fog...

Energy crisis deja vu: the U.S. energy needs--and the world's--are changing fast. Are we prepared?
Is the United States at the beginning of another energy crisis? Oil prices surged past $50 a barrel in late 2004, bumping heating oil and gasoline to the highest prices in years. Natural gas jumped to around $6 per million Btu after having spent most of the...