Strapped for cash, Chesapeake Energy Corp canceled its traditionally grand display of holiday lights this year, but like most oil and gas drillers it is still dreaming of a white Christmas. A mild North American winter could punish large drillers, especially gas giants like Chesapeake, by curbing seasonal demand for heating of homes and businesses and hurting prices. Energy companies, laden with debt and reeling from a 17-month collapse in oil prices, may now face their most critical few months of the decade-long U.S. fracking boom. So far, the weather is not going their way. Typically by the second half of December between a third and half of the United States has snow cover. This year, it is limited mostly to sparsely populated […]