Hhhhmmmm, it's following the Script, just taking a little longer than projected.

[ Fair Use: For Educational / Research Purposes Only ]

Feb 15, 2000 - 01:06 PM

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Clinton said today the rising cost of home heating oil was "deeply troubling" for low-income families and that the federal government may release more money to help them warm their homes.

"I have not closed off any options," the president said. "I'm monitoring this on a daily basis." He spoke briefly with reporters in the Cabinet Room after crude oil prices climbed above $30 for the first time since the eve of the Persian Gulf War nine years ago.

So far, the government has released $2 million from the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. "We can release more," the president said.

Clinton said there would be some important meetings among oil-producing countries within the next few days, "We will know more about this in a week or 10 days about what the trends are going to be," he said.

"But the American people are handling the price increase pretty well in terms of every aspect of our lives because of increased energy efficiency, except for home heating oil," he said.

He said many people in New England and the Mid-Atlantic states "are still dependent upon a source of heating which the rest of the country left long ago.

"And they are unbelievably burdened by this," the president said.

Clinton said the government's heating oil assistance eases the burden of the poorest families. "But there are a lot of working people on modest incomes that are just getting killed by this, because of their reliance on home heating oil."

[ Ahem, well, prepping for Y2K did involve redundancy, back-ups, energy alternatives. Not to mention watching trends and expectations that fuel might suffer some slowdowns. ]

He said middle- and lower-income Americans "have no option to heat their home but home heating oil. They're the people that are really getting hurt."
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-- Ashton & Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), February 15, 2000

Answers

Ashton/Leska,

Tazmanian witch arrests?!? Yahoo! Where? I wanna watch!

Seriously, this whole charade would be funny if it didn't involve such serious issues... what really annoys me is seeing Senator Dodd howling and complaining about the high cost of oil for his constituents in Connecticut, clamoring for emergency legislation, yadda yadda yadda ... without ever once reminding everyone that he was the co-chair of the Senate Committee (along with Bennett) that continued to publish warnings about Y2K-related oil disruptions in Venezuela, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and Nigeria right up through their 100-day report in September.

The only one of the big producers I haven't heard anything about lately is Mexico. Are their wells and pipelines and refineries running okay?

Ed

-- Ed Yourdon (ed@yourdon.com), February 15, 2000.

Do you have a link to the story?

-- The Missing Link (weneeda@linkplease.com), February 15, 2000.

Dear Missing Link,

The trouble with AP Breaking News individual stories is that their URL goes dead after a couple of hours. Actually the URLs are recycled, so you might click on a story about Tazmanian witch arrests, women in the workforce statistics, soybean futures, etc.

Here's the URL for AP Breaking News stories; if you click right away, you'll see this story (actually repeated a few times):

AP Breaking News Articles

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), February 15, 2000.

Great. Now he's paying for someone else's oil with my tax dollars which is going to force the price of oil even higher costing me even more money the next time I buy oil. Yeah, releasing the money is a great idea...NOT!!

-TECH32-

-- TECH32 (TECH32@NOMAIL.COM), February 15, 2000.

Uh oh.

We'll hear this 'deeply troubling' spin for a bit while they decide who it's most politically profitable to blame.

If that doesn't work, which wag-the-dog are we on now? 4? 5? 6? Talk about tax money!

-- redeye in ohio (not@work.com), February 15, 2000.

Well, since Y2K never existed and is the Dirty Word Tabboo (at over $100 BBillion +), the pollyticknicians are in the limbo position of not being able to crow about their foresight.

Strange indeed, but we knew there would be a total news blackout after the Ridicule Spin.

Still rejoicing that the miracle is holding and the good times keep rolling!

We never were comfortable about storing fuel, so we invested in multiple "Everest-rated" sleeping bags, comforters, and polartech 'n duofold long johns, sweaters, hats, etc. Also, we've never heated our place in wintertime, so as to acclimatize our bods to cold and also to spend the saved $$ on long-lasting warm layers.

Apartment prep is quite a bit different than homesteading prep ;^) but survival in both is possible. Glad it hasn't come to that!

Ed, you mean you missed the Witch Thread? It really did pop up on AP Breaking News, and as hospice caregivers and Anne Rice readers we *had* to post it (sly grin)

OOT: Weird: WITCH Arrest

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), February 15, 2000.

Oops, that was Tanzania rather than Tazmania, a spelling and geography challenged moment ;^)

-- witchever (Taz@mania.on.humptydumpty), February 15, 2000.

Ed,

Any new thoughts or incidents to report from DD1Light or any of your anon sources in Saudi? I think it was last week that I read DD's comments on Humpty Dumpty about the burnout of the maint. folks and how they were all "talking around the elephant in the living room."

I'm sure I'm not alone in wondering if the Saudi's recent announcements re: cutbacks to US and Europe are based in pure greed or inability to produce.

Glad you're still here, BTW.

Jimmy

-- Jimmy Splinters (inthe@dark.com), February 15, 2000.

Hmmm....deeply troubling eh? I find the Broaddrick rape accusation "deeply troubling".

-- haha (haha@haha.com), February 15, 2000.

Remember, the Pres. now has to consider that he has a private home...which will need heating oil!

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), February 15, 2000.

-- Ashton & Leska "Well, since Y2K never existed and is the Dirty Word Tabboo (at over $100 BBillion +), the pollyticknicians are in the limbo position of not being able to crow about their foresight. Strange indeed, but we knew there would be a total news blackout after the Ridicule Spin."

Beautifully put.

"You better put some ice on that" = deeply troubling

...sdb

-- S. David Bays (SDBAYS@prodigy.net), February 16, 2000.