Kerry, Snowe Sound Heating Oil Alarm
Jun 30th, 2008 | By Dawn R. Rivers | Category: Politics & PolicyA thoroughly alarmed set of top lawmakers on the Senate Small Business Committee heard testimony last week about the home heating oil market, the small businesses that operate there, and the looming winter crisis spawned by outrageous oil prices. In New England, where most homeowners still use oil furnaces to heat their homes, production is down, the Northeastern Home Heating Oil Reserve is low, prices are already up to $4.50 a gallon (in low-demand June, too), and small heating fuel retailers are going out of businesses because their customers still can’t pay last winter’s bills. It’s a situation that could readily degenerate into “a snowy Katrina,” as Chairman John Kerry (D-MA) put it. He and an equally worried Ranking Member Olympia Snowe (R-ME) have been frustrated by the Bush Administration’s reluctance to intervene in the market and the lack of interest among their Senate colleagues. However, Kerry closed the hearing with a vow “to get this on the front burner.”
