[your local physicist]

Good article but I don’t follow the part about big heating bills this winter. Natural gas prices have collapsed down to around $3 lately so heating bills shouldn’t be any higher than last year. I don’t think anyone can predict whether this will be a colder winter than usual. But I like the rest of the article and agree that people will be talking politics over the holidays. I’m amazed at the lack of qualifications and the dubious character of some of the people the administration has put into high level positions.

[jocon307]

“Good article but I don’t follow the part about big heating bills this winter...I don’t think anyone can predict whether this will be a colder winter than usual.”

Agreed 100%. It was certainly a disgustingly cool and rainy summer (I mean how cool was it if I’m complaining?), but that saved people money. I doubt that means the winter will be colder than usual.

[muawiyah]

It's not the price of the gas that's at issue ~ rather it's the ability of the users to pay. Plus, New England is on OIL HEAT, and the rest of the country is using coal ~ directly or indirectly, and Obama's Cap and Tax system is designed to destroy coal users.

Yup, gonna' be a bad, bad, bad winter!

[rightwingextremist1776]

cap and trade.....that’s how.

[wbill]

I don’t think anyone can predict whether this will be a colder winter than usual.

FWIW, The Farmers Almanac says for the north. It's usually pretty close to the mark.

I'm predicting a colder than usual winter here in the south, too. We're about a month ahead of "normal" as far as temperatures go. Highs in the 70s, lows in the 50s, the last weeks have felt more like October than Early September. And the oak trees in my backyard are bent double with acorns. Last time that happened we got two crippling back-to-back ice storms that winter. Locked up the city for a week-plus, each time.

Totally unscientific, I know. Just reporting what I'm seeing.