Local residents who use natural gas or heating oil to heat their homes will see the effects of rising crude oil prices on their wallets this winter.

State Sen. Jake Corman, R-Bellefonte, said according to testimony before the Senate Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure Committee last week, Pennsylvanians will see a 40 percent increase in home heating costs this winter.

"Clearly that's going to present a lot of problems to low-income homeowners," Corman said.

Rob Boulware, spokesman for Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania, said natural gas prices this fiscal quarter rose from $8.17 to $13.25 per thousand cubic feet.The average residential customer's bill went from $102.31 last year to $147.95 this year. Boulware said the increase is a result of the rise in gas prices, in part because of hurricanes in the Gulf Coast.

"We pay for natural gas on the open market," he said. "Even before, supply and demand was tight."

He added that, like heating oil, natural gas prices will depend on the weather.

"Colder-than-normal weather will affect demand," he said.

Boulware said the company has about 3,000 natural gas customers in State College.

Office of Physical Plant spokesman Paul Ruskin said the campus is primarily heated by burning coal and is supplemented by natural gas. However, the university was able to save money by locking in a contract at a lower price.

"With that in mind, we are, in the long-term, negatively impacted," he said. "When we pay more, the operating cost of the university increases."

In response to the increase in prices, Corman wrote a letter to the governor to suggest the state use money from its "Rainy Day Fund," which is set aside for times of economic hardship, to supplement the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program.

It is a federal program that assists low-income households in paying their heating and cooling bills.

Corman said the state should increase the funding that these households receive by 40 percent to offset the increase in heating costs.

John Hanna, property manager for Continental Real Estate Management, 333 S. Allen St., said the effect of rising natural gas prices will affect the owners of the condominiums his company manages.

While Continental, which pays the properties' heating bills, can increase the condominium fee in January, condo owners cannot increase rent until next August.

"They're stuck between January and August when these leases expire," he said.

He said that rent prices might rise next year as a result.

Jim Scott, general manager of Nittany Oil Company, 1540 Martin St., said heating oil, a popular energy source in the State College area, has seen a sharp increase in prices since last year.

The retail price of home heating oil is currently about $2.50 per gallon, a dollar increase since last year.

Scott added that his company is at the mercy of the volatile market price for crude oil, from which heating oil is produced.

"We can put oil in a tank today and lose money on it tomorrow," he said.

Gov. Ed Rendell is also concerned and will make the problem of rising cost of heating one of his "short-term priorities," spokesman Chuck Ardo said.

Petroleum is derived from crude oil, so the demand for all products, including gasoline, figures into heating oil and natural gas prices, said Bill Bush, spokesman for the American Petroleum Institute.

It's impossible to ascertain what will happen to prices this winter, Bush said.

"I don't know that there's any way to predict what's going to happen in the upcoming season," Bush said.