Business: The Heating War Erupts

In a bill-cutting battle, natural gas vs. oil

By now it is almost as mucha fixture of fall as football: the annual renewal of the struggle between the natural gas and oil industries to fuel America's furnaces. In a multimillion-dollar ad campaign, the American Gas Association has been seeking to persuade the 16 million owners of homes heated with oil that its product is the nation's "best energy buy" and "the most efficient way to heat." Fuel oil suppliers, for their part, say their competitors' contentions that gas burns more efficiently and will remain substantially cheaper represent "false claims" and...

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