No! Freeze them! they are so much easier to shell that way!

and yes, vegetable fats (oils, rather than solid fat for the most part) go rancid much faster! but peanut butter, (commerical) has all the good liquid oily fat, turned into bad solid fat! you really should only eat "organic/natural" peanut butter that has to be stirred and keep cool

to my knowledge not all nuts become carcinogens when rancid (but they sure don't taste as good!) Peanuts most definately do.. but somewhere in an other vaguely food thread, its pointed out peanuts are not nuts, but legumes.