Electric utilities in Vermont are worried about the high cost of home heating oil. They fear consumers will be inclined to use electric space heaters to heat their homes this winter.

Hey, I’ve been running the numbers on that. At over $4/gallon for oil, the 11 or 12 cent kilowatt-hour looks pretty good.

The utilities say their grid, particularly in Southern Vermont, cannot handle the added load if we all turn on a space heater.

And they want us to add plug-in electric cars to the mix?

Ye gods.