If you are reading this, you are probably a junkie.

Not the needle-tracks-in-the-arm type of user. You’re probably not even a smoker.

But your addiction for petroleum products is costing you a pretty penny these days.

In various tanks you own, you probably have a couple of hundred gallons of oil products, No. 2 heating oil at the house, gasoline in your vehicles. Maybe some kerosene and propane. Quite the stash.

And it won’t be long before you’ll need more.

What choice is there in Maine? The recent spikes in heating oil and gas prices have made matters even worse.

We’re rural and it’s cold here for about half the year. Really cold for about four months. And a lot of us, me included, drive gas-guzzling SUVs because, well, the roads aren’t always so keen on stormy winter nights. No “snow days” at your friendly daily newspaper.

And what’s even worse than being a junkie is being treated like one. Embarrassing. Humiliating even.

So who’s treating us like junkies? Try OPEC. Some of its members think prices are getting so high they might destabilize the western economies. So they’re thinking of pumping a little more.

Don’t believe any notion of empathy on its part. They want to keep the prices barely bearable so we don’t do anything radical, like build cars that are much more efficient or use batteries. And we might even build houses with less square footage and equipped with features that would make them less oil-dependent to heat.

We’ve only had about 30 years now to get used to this long-term problem, but the status quo is pretty strong in the good old USA. And Maine is on the wrong end of this stick.

With our rural nature we have miles of roads and with the cold we have little choice other than buying lots of oil. It is a decided disadvantage when it comes to economic development and the current off-shoring craze. It’s a lot warmer in India and Mexico.

During the last generation, Congress has done little to help with long-term solutions. There have been some incentives and some promotion of more efficient vehicles, but basically token things. Aid is provided to lower-income families to help with heating bills, but that is certainly only a stop-gap measure.

Although this may sound like a bleak scenario, it also holds promise. Around Maine, small companies are doing things like developing solar panels to produce electricity. One of those companies, Energyworks LLC in Liberty, will be featured in a story on this business page.

This week Beth Nagusky, director of Maine’s Office of Energy Independence and Security, is printing proposed legislation that would provide rebates, excuse sales taxes and provide income tax credits to Maine people who install solar water heaters and solar equipment that produces electricity.

If Maine became a leader in these and related efforts, what is now an economic disadvantage could become the basis for a healthy new industry, which might even export products to other cold states.

Although Maine is not known for its auto industry, maybe some entrepreneurial types could even move in this direction.

Recently we have seen Eastern Maine Medical Center and the University of Maine in Orono announce plans to generate their own electricity. While those plans have their detractors because the rest of us might have to pick up extra transmission costs, they are also encouraging.

They reflect organizations trying to save some money in a very costly energy-shopping marketplace. Who could blame homeowners for trying the same type of thing? .

And the Bangor Daily News would like to be a part of it. If you are, or know of an entrepreneur who is trying to provide a less oil-reliant life, let us know. We enjoy doing stories about people like you. Give us a call. We’re even here on snow days.