November 3, 2007 (LPAC)--Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA) sees a disastrous scenario developing in the Northeast this Winter. Heading into the cold season, heating oil supplies are dangerously low--down 25% over stocks last Fall, while prices have risen by 24%, to record levels. Retail prices in Massachusetts for heating oil are now above $2.90, twice what they were in 2000, according to Boston.com.

In an attempt to bring down prices and free up supplies, Markey has called on the Bush Administration to release oil from two oil reserves,-- the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve, and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR),-- "to address the looming home heating oil crisis facing American consumers."

Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman has instead chosen to call on the OPEC nations to increase production, ignoring the speculation-driven nature of the price hikes. DOE spokeswoman Megan Barnett countered demands to dip into the SPR, by calling on Congress and the Administration to "increase renewable and alternative fuels and vehicle efficiency standards through the President's Twenty in Ten Initiative." She sees the price gouging as a tool with which to club Americans into embracing biofuels madness.