Riots in Egypt and cold weather in New England may not seem like they have much in common.
The recent turmoil in the Middle East makes it more apparent than ever the region must move quickly to break its addiction to home heating oil.
New England, is more dependent on oil for heat than any other region and any big disruption in the global supply chain will translate to big bucks for its families.
Energy planners, have been sounding the alarm and lamenting the annual export of $3 billion to $5 billion a year from the state's economy that's spent on fossil fuels, including heating oil, gasoline and diesel.
New Englanders button up their homes as technology improves the efficiency of furnaces and motors improve , but the price of oil and gas — driven largely by a burgeoning global demand — isn't going to go down soon, if ever.
Steep climbs in costs, not incomes
Over the past dozen years, the per-gallon cost of heating oil has jumped by more than 300 percent, and the cost of gasoline, one of the primary fuels for transportation, has gone up more than 200 percent.
The burden of the regions fossil-fuel dependence affects impoverished and low-income families the most.
Without a vibrant plan to diversify our energy sources, including solar and wind power we are in trouble.
. The Energy Information Agency, an arm of the U.S. Department of Energy, is projecting crude oil prices will reach more than $100 a barrel within the next five to 10 years. And with that, the price of refined petroleum products like home heating oil will go higher.
But even with conservation and efficiency measures, growing demand from places like China and India will push petroleum prices upward.
For example, a natural disaster or political unrest in an oil-producing country or a country critical to the global oil supply could have a big impact on our energy prices, especially at the height of the heating season.
After the current crisis developed in Egypt, a country that moves about 3 million barrels a day through its Suez Canal, the per-barrel price of oil jumped by $6 in three days.
That price shift wasn't triggered by an actual supply disruption, but more by general market concerns over instability in the Middle East. It illustrates the direct connection we have to unstable governments far away.
Other energy experts, including those in the oil industry, say that while they recognize the regions current dependence on oil can be a problem, they do not expect any sudden or apocalyptic scenarios for the state.
The market will determine prices and that is one reason many have started to broker in different kinds of heating fuels, including pellets and propane.
Price will certainly push people to other fuels or to be more efficient.
Growing global demand alone will push fuel oil and gasoline to $5 per gallon within the next decade, Kerry predicted, and for each $1 jump in the per-gallon price of oil, add $1 billion per year to the amount of money being exported from our economy.
Meanwhile, developments on the world stage will continue to directly affect how much we pay for heat and transportation.
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