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Today's energy is expensive enough, but it'll only worsen without a cogent U.S. energy policy

Date published: 10/18/2005

Warm thoughts

Rising energy costs demand strong policy

IF YOU THINK gasoline cost a lot on your late-summer vacation, wait until your home heating bill arrives this winter. The headlines are becoming more frightful by the day: Energywise, this shapes up to be one budget buster of a season.

If the rising price of filling up has a bright side, it's that everyone is now considering the impact of expensive energy on his or her life. But most of us think short-term: How much will the next tankful or power bill be? The key question, however, is whether U.S. energy policy will address the challenges down the road.

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita are not solely to blame for the bleak energy outlook. While it's true that the price of a barrel of oil hit an all-time high of $70.85 on Aug. 30, just after Katrina struck, even when winds were calm the tab was in the low $60s--twice what it was just two years ago. Furthermore, natural-gas prices, which were hovering between $7 and $9 per million BTU last fall, spiked to $15 after the storms and now sit at more than $13--nearly three bucks higher than their pre-Katrina levels.

What all this boils down to, says the Campaign for Home Energy Assistance, is that Americans will pay 48 percent more this winter than last for natural gas and 32 percent more for heating oil. Propane will cost 30 percent more, and electricity--a bargain--5 percent more. Thus, the organization urges Congress to boost funding to its Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. The current annual allocation, about $1.9 billion, is the same as when the program began in 1982--but it goes less than half as far.

Meanwhile, homeowners would be wise to take some basic conservation steps, such as inspecting attic insulation and strip-insulating places where heated air can escape around windows and doors. When the house gets chilly, reach for a sweater instead of the thermostat. Also consider joining your energy supplier's budget plan, and spread those costs out at a set level over the entire year. Finally, if at all possible, contribute to an energy-share program to assist families who have to choose between a warm house and a warm meal.

But the nation's lack of a long-term energy policy is the basic problem. Nuclear power ill deserves its bugaboo rap. Also, though the federal government lives in a red-ink swamp, new research must focus on alternative forms of energy that come from renewable sources--biofuels, wind, solar, even hydropower--but don't induce climatic change. Much of this study, with a government boost, should spring from the private investments of energy mega-suppliers here and abroad. After all, diversification of energy resources is key if these companies are to maintain their positions of strength as oil prices continue to rise and supplies dwindle.

Frances Beinecke, the head of the Natural Resources Defense Council, says that Americans think they're entitled to clean air and water. As a matter of fact, we are. But if we believe we're entitled to endless tankfuls of cheap unleaded, the rude awakening has already begun.

Date published: 10/18/2005