Editor’s note

The soaring cost of gasoline and heating oil is steering Maine people back to the basics of personal energy management.

Keeping pace with the march of petroleum prices is renewed interest in alternative fuels – wood coal, propane and natural gas. Homeowners are dusting off how-to books on winterizing and insulation, and checking the ads of replacement windows.

The energy crisis of 2005 is deja vu for price-spike veterans of the Arab oil embargo of the 1970s. It presents a challenging and potentially risky future for readers whose knowledge of energy starts and ends at the hallway thermostat. Choosing the wrong fuel or system or improper installation of a wood-burning appliance can be financially draining, and sometimes, downright dangerous. Just read BDN reporter Dawn Gagnon’s accompanying story on this topic.

Beginning today, and each Monday on the Business Page, the Bangor Daily News will feature Focus on Energy – timely, relevant stories and graphics devoted to topics that matter to motorists, homeowners and businesses – everyone trying to stay warm, heat their store, or travel back and forth to work on a reasonable energy budget.

In the weeks to come, you’ll read stories on topics such as finding the right thermostat or tips for modifying driving habits to conserve fuel, and we’ll provide useful charts on the heat values of fuel wood, the efficiency of heating systems and other energy-related subjects.

Most of all, we want your questions. We need to know what matters to you as you survey what can be a confusing landscape of oil futures, furnace tune-ups, BTU values and competing energy choices. Focus on Energy needs your questions, and your thoughts as we enter what may be a challenging winter of 2005-2006. Let us know. E-mail us: energy@bangordailynews.net. We’ll do our best to find the answers, and offer them to you Monday, here in Focus on Energy.