Crude oil crossed the $90 per barrel threshold this week in trading, a price not seen in more than two years since oil peaked at $145 in 2008 before tumbling during the recession.  Many analysts believe oil still has room to rise, and that the price could soar to $100 per barrel in early 2011 .

Driving the rise is a perfect storm of increased demand from a growing China and an intense early cold spell around the world.  Winter has gripped much of North America and Europe, with freezing temperatures and snow blanketing much of the continents. This has pushed oil consumption to higher than anticipated levels and caused a surge in prices.

Consumers could be paying several hundred more dollars to heat their homes and fill up their cars this winter.  Home heating oil has jumped to $2.47 a gallon, up 24 percent over this time last year.    The northeastern U.S. will take the brunt of the heating oil spike, where more homeowners use heating oil over gas and electric.  Kevin Rooney, Chief Executive of the Oil Heat Institute of Long Island, tells Fox News the spike in price this week, “is going to increase the average family’s expenditure for home heating oil by more than two hundred dollars over the next several months.”   Rooney explains, “that’s because half of the oil they will use for the year, will be used in the next three months, and right now heating oil is roughly 40-cents a gallon higher than last year.”

Drivers could also be feeling the pain at the pump, paying more than three dollars a gallon on average before the Christmas holiday. That’s up from an average of $2.62 at the same time last year.  Phil Flynn with Chicago based trading company PFGBEST says, “These higher gas prices could change their holiday plans.  A lot of people who are struggling aren’t going to have that extra money to fill that gas tank to travel over the holidays, so this could have a negative effect, a scrooge-like effect on the holiday driving weekend.”

Higher gas prices mean consumers have less money to spend in other areas too effecting small businesses, transportation and retail. With the holiday season in full swing, this could have a trickledown effect – people spending less money in stores, creating less jobs and further weakening the economy.