Northeast Oil deliverymen Brian Hartman and Joe Imbrescia are seeing prices remain rather high for heating oil this winter, even though predictions say prices in Greater Boston will slightly decrease. Natural gas prices are predicted to increase this year. However, in light of the recent oil boom, lower prices for both heating products in the next several years looks very realistic.
Just five years ago, America seemed to be at a crisis point when it came to its energy needs, and nowhere was that more apparent around here than in home heating bills – whether for heating oil or natural gas. In fact, during the presidential election of 2008, both candidates preached about the need to achieve energy independence – and just about anyone with a heating bill would have attested at the time that energy independence was a prime concern for most Americans.
Now, just a few years removed from that election, the United States has flipped the script and become the top producer of oil and natural gas in the world by using the new drilling techniques of hydraulic fracturing (known as “frackingâ€). Using that technique to tap into previously unattainable oil reserves in the Dakotas, Texas and Pennsylvania, American is seemingly on its way to energy independence almost overnight. Already, natural gas prices have gone down and American oil refineries report having a glut of crude oil at their doorsteps.
It is one of the most underreported stories in the nation, and it could end up saving residents thousands upon thousands of dollars in the coming years on their heating bills – but as for this year, don’t pop the cork on that champagne just yet.
