Icy Rivers Slow New York Barges Trying to Deliver Heating Fuel

(Bloomberg) -- Shivering New Yorkers may have to pay more to get warm as ice in the Hudson River delayed fuel-barge deliveries and the U.S. government warned of a home heating-fuel shortage from the East Coast to Texas.

The Coast Guard has deployed four of its five Hudson River ice-cutting vessels since Dec. 30 to carve out a path for tankers hauling motor and heating fuels to supply terminals around the city. River ice thickened to 6 inches north of Poughkeepsie, New York, over the weekend, according to Steve Strohmeyer, a U.S. Coast Guard spokesman. The agency later warned of ice conditions forming around Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.

U.S. retail diesel prices averaged $2.87 a gallon on New Year's Day, the most since June 2015, according to motorist group AAA.

--With assistance from Lucia Kassai

To contact the reporter on this story: Laura Blewitt in Houston at lblewitt@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Marino at dmarino4@bloomberg.net, Margot Habiby, Debarati Roy

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.

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