Some Americans could see their heat and power bills go up as the U.S.-led war in Iran continues to cause the price of crude oil to swing wildly, according to energy experts.
Rising oil prices are going to most directly impact the heating costs of Americans who rely on heating oil to warm their homes, said Ken Troske, an economics professor at the University of Kentucky’s Gatton College of Business and Economics.
Those Americans make up a small portion of the population. Just under 5 million households, mainly located in the Northeast, used heating oil as their primary means of heating their homes in the winter of 2023 to 2024, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Experts told HuffPost that those households have likely already seen their heating bills increase due to the war in Iran and should brace themselves for even higher costs over the next six to eight weeks.
Heating oil prices could jump by $1 to $1.35 more for a gallon in the near future, according to Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. He warned that home heating oil costs could rise even more if the Northeast backslides into colder weather, bumping up demand.
