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British Gas has been criticised for announcing record profits just after it raised prices. The UK’s biggest gas supplier has just revealed a 24% increase in profits over the last few months. About eight million customers were hit with a price hike on December 10, raising the average dual fuel bill by £80.

There has been a big blow to prospective climate legislation in the United States of America. A group of senators were due to unveil a new bill this week, but postponed their plans when one of the three, South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham, threatened to pull out if Senate majority leader Harry Reid followed through on talk of introducing a bill to reform immigration policy.

HeatingSave’s intelligent heating controller is the answer to fuel bills going up. The price comparison site confused.com said that the smaller energy companies, because they do not benefit from the bigger economies of scale, tend to be the first to pass on reduced prices in a falling market, and of course are the first to raise them as wholesale prices go up.

The Energy Savings Trust, is a Government backed non-profit organisation that provides free impartial advice tailored to the consumer. Their advice can help you save money and fight climate change by reducing carbon dioxide emissions from your home.

Oil prices are at their highest for 10 months, up at over $74 a barrel, as Europe, China and maybe the USA come out of recession and start using more energy. Demand for oil from China rose by 3.5% in July compared with July 2008 with similar increases in demand expected from the euro zone as their industrial output strengthens.

Official figures this week reveal the number of households who are in ‘fuel poverty’ has more than doubled in the last five years because of soaring energy bills. A household is defined as being fuel poor if it has to spend 10 per cent or more of its income on paying to keep the home adequately warm. For many pensioners this is the largest bill they have to pay all year, so many are struggling to keep their homes warm. In 2003 the number of fuel poor households was two million, but it climbed to 4.5 million in 2008, according to the Department of Energy & Climate Change.

This is the question many households are asking as the winter fuel bills hit the doormats. Well you could be facing a fuel bill price hike of £100 this year, with an average household rise of £57 in the last quarter alone.  So it”s about time you took steps to cut down on your heating costs and look at fuel saving measures before the next cold spell in November 2010.

A total of £2 billion a year could be saved by UK households if they make an effort to becoming energy efficient, the Energy Saving Trust has claimed. “Investing in energy efficient technologies like loft or cavity wall insulation is an invaluable way to ensure that we can add value to our home, keep bills down and unlike decor will never go out of fashion,” said Philip Sellwood, chief executive of the Energy Saving Trust (EST).

Utilities firm Npower has admitted it had not communicated well the changes it made to charges, and now 1.8m people are to receive an average refund of £35 in one of the biggest pay-outs of its kind. Npower says it will write to all those affected over the next two months, even if they are no longer customers.

British Gas has announced a 7% rise in gas and electricity bills this winter, the increase coming into effect on December 10. The company said this was the result of rising wholesale prices. The energy giant said prices for those on a typical dual-fuel deal would go up by £1.50 a week, but its 300,000 most vulnerable customers would initially not be charged more. The rise affects eight million customers, and British Gas is the second major UK energy supplier to hike prices for winter.

Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) has apologised that it is putting up its domestic gas tariffs by 9.4 per cent at the start of December. SSE blamed the increasing wholesale cost of buying gas which it said had gone up by a quarter since March this year.

The UK’s first Climate Week, which takes place between March 21 and 27, 2011, is seven days dedicated to showing how we can combat climate change. Organisations from every part of society are planning activities for Climate Week, when winners of the prestigious Climate Week Awards will be announced. Entries can be submitted right now in a range of categories which include initiatives by businesses, community groups and public services.