Heating fuel expenditures will decrease this winter from less demand and prices
Bernard Weinstein, an economist and associate director of SMU's Maguire Energy Institute, says heating fuel expenditures will decrease this winter from less demand and prices.
NEW YORK (MainStreet) — The rapid decline of crude oil prices recently is putting a downward pressure on heating bills this winter and will bring costs down 20% to 25%, said Bernard Weinstein, associate director of the Maguire Energy Institute at the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
“There will be significant savings,” he said. “This is a real bargain for consumers compared to prices five years ago. When crude oil prices goes down, the prices of refined fuels also decline.”
Expenditures for natural gas, heating oil, electricity and propane in American households will decrease this winter heating season from October 1 through March 31 compared with last winter, which was 11% colder than the previous ten-year average nationally, according to the Energy Information Administration. A decrease in both demand and prices means consumer households will spend 27% less in propane and 15% in heating oil costs, 5% in natural gas and 2% in electricity this winter.
# # #