It's only February, and Xavier Reed has already racked up $8,000 in unpaid heating bills.
Except, the debt isn't his. It's his customers'.
As winter temperatures keep dropping and fuel prices continue rising, the owner of Can-Do Fuel Oil Co. in West Baltimore sees no choice. Either give his longtime customers a temporary pass on paying for the heating oil they need to warm their homes this season, or leave hundreds of them in the cold.
He's willing to take the risk.
"Most of my customers are on the low-income side," said Reed, the second-generation owner of the family-run business on Baker Street.
"These are people who have been buying oil from me for years. They have to have oil. They have to have heat. Most of them have overspent their winter fuel budget. Do I turn them away? The situation is that people are going to be priced out of keeping warm."
Across the state and country, colder weather, higher demand, low inventories and uncertainty over major overseas oil suppliers have combined forces this year to hit people hard at home and at the gas pump.
Over the next several months, experts say, Marylanders and their neighbors should brace for increasingly volatile fuel prices as threats of war in the Middle East and the strike in Venezuela continue to cause sharp spikes in the price of oil.
The price of light sweet crude rose to a 26-month high yesterday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, reaching $36.40 per barrel.
The average retail price for regular gasoline rose for the ninth week in a row to a little over $1.60 per gallon, the highest price since June 2001, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Natural gas
Natural gas prices are creeping up as well. Although oil and natural gas markets are separate, the prices for the two tend to move together because they compete in the industrial and power generation sector, according to the Natural Gas Supply Association.
In this region, Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. is projecting a 30 percent to 40 percent increase in residential customers' heating bills for the entire winter. That translates to an additional $140 to $150 per customer for the entire heating season from November to March.
Few are blaming price gouging on this season's misery, unlike two years ago when energy companies were accused of taking advantage of the power crisis in the West. Instead, experts say you can blame the poor economy and current events.
"It's really a sticker shock for customers," said John C. Felmy, the chief economist for the American Petroleum Institute. "It depends on three factors. What happens with Venezuela? What happens with Iraq? What happens with the weather? The prices could get better. They could get worse. It's anybody's guess."
All it means is that to cut down on fuel costs this winter, people will have to turn the thermostat down a notch or two, put on a sweater, throw a couple of more blankets on at night and maybe fill up the car with regular instead of premium gasoline.
For Janette Penn, it meant loading up her Toyota Camry with Amoco's $1.69 per gallon mid-grade gas instead of premium, which was selling for $1.73 at the Orleans Street station.
It's only a 4-cent difference, but every little bit counts, especially since the heating bill for her Northeast Baltimore apartment shot up 47 percent last month.
"It used to cost me $13 to fill up my car, now it's $20," said Penn, 43, an insurance claims processor who also holds a part-time catering job.
"My natural gas bill used to be $75. Now it's $110. I'm single. I work two jobs just to get ahead. Now, I'm just trying to maintain.
"What can you do? You have to get to and from. You have to have heat. There's no way around it."
That's exactly what advocates for the poor are worried about. Although heating bills haven't soared the way they did in 2001 when natural gas prices doubled and tripled, groups such as the Fuel Fund of Maryland are concerned that large-scale utility service terminations could come in the spring if low-income customers can't pay their winter heating bills.
And high prices aren't just hurting the poor, said executive director Mary Ellen Vanni. They are also taking a toll on middle-income families that usually donate to the fuel fund.
"Some people have already called us this year and said they can't give to us because the cost of their own fuel bill has increased," Vanni said.
"We've also got families coming back for help a second time, and that does make it difficult because it's supposed to be a one-time grant. But people are finding themselves in extreme need.
"We're worried that a lot of these people could get shut off by spring time."
State energy agencies have also been hitting the streets since November to urge low-income residents to apply for assistance.
$55 million in aid
By April 30, the state estimates it will have given out about $27 million in Electric Universal Service Program funds, which help with electricity bills, and about $28 million in Maryland Energy Assistance Program funds, which help pay for fuel used to heat homes.
The Bush administration also tapped into emergency low-income energy assistance funding last month to increase federal dollars to such state energy programs.
"We've had about 64,000 applications so far, and we believe we have enough money to reach about 80,000 households," said A.J. O'Brien, a policy specialist at the state Office of Home Energy Programs.
"Our number of applications are up about 20 percent statewide. We're just letting people know that we have ample money to help them. They shouldn't wait to apply."
Those who don't qualify for assistance say they're doing what they can to get by.
Don Caplan isn't happy with the price increases, but he doesn't really see a way around paying almost $1.80 a gallon for gas. His Ford truck needs diesel to run. He's also steeling himself for the higher natural gas bill that will come in the mail any day now for his Pikesville apartment.
"Nothing goes down in this world," said Caplan, 63, who is a building manager for a major medical institution in town.
"I took into account what winters are supposed to be like around here so I budgeted for the cold, but the potential for war has really raised prices so high that it's caught a lot of people by surprise. I've told my bosses they should be prepared for our energy bills going up."
As for Xavier Reed, he's hoping what goes around will come around and that his customers will prove him right in the end.
Christine Hollis in East Baltimore said she's promised to pay Can-Do Fuel $187 by the end of next week for the 125 gallons of heating oil that the company brought her last week. She's just waiting on a paycheck from Rite-Aid Corp.
"I don't know how many more people he does like that, but I know he does me like that," said Hollis, 73, who also baby-sits every day to make money.
"If I know in my heart they're going to pay, I'd do it for someone else, and Mr. Reed knows I'm going to pay. I'm glad to my heart that I'm with him because elderly people, we need our heat."