Wow, it was warm yesterday

I took down the Christmas lights while wearing a T-shirt and then I played basketball with my kid. (Kicked his eight-year-old ass!) Anyway, the Boston Globe notes that while ski resorts are suffering, everybody’s saving a ton on the heating bills:

Record-breaking temperatures are pushing thermostats down across New England, cutting heating use roughly 20 percent to generate significant savings that could boost the economy.

The savings has not only rippled across households but also government, schools, and businesses that can spend less on heat and snow removal. Other sectors have also benefited, such as construction companies, which can take on projects they normally would have put off until the spring. At the same time, traditional cold-weather industries, such as ski resorts, are hurting while retailers are finding it hard to unload snow shovels, wool coats, and hats.

Any more bad news, Al Gore?

Depressed demand for heating fuels, caused by the warm weather, has added to the surplus of oil on world markets, which some economists expect could lower prices at the gas pump.

For more inconvenient truths, here’s “A conversation with Bjorn Lomborg” of “The Skeptical Environmentalist” fame.