High Fossil Fuel Costs Force Families to Choose Between Food and Heat

Freeport LNG now says it will begin some liquefaction operations in December and will not be fully operational until March. Following a massive explosion in June, the company had originally claimed it would have its LNG facility back online in October, a timeline that has been pushed back, multiple times.

The facility accounted for about one-fifth of U.S. gas exports, and the immediate drop in methane gas prices after the initial explosion and subsequent delays illustrates the extent to which LNG exports are driving up methane gas prices.

U.S. fossil fuel home heating costs have skyrocketed in the last two years, forcing families to choose between heating their homes and putting food on the table while oil companies have pulled down record profits.

“It’s 50 or 55 degrees in here. To me that’s not unbearable yet,” Tim Wiseley, a 67-year-old retiree living month-to-month on Social Security benefits, told CNN of his home outside Philadelphia, adding that he won’t turn on his furnace until his “teeth chatter.”

Federal heating assistance programs will have 42% less to distribute this winter as COVID stimulus funds are depleted. “It’s a horrible feeling,” Wiseley said. “It’s a feeling I wouldn’t wish on anyone.”

For a deeper dive:

Houston Chronicle, E&E, OilPrice, Politico Pro; Heating costs: CNN, NBC

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