Oil prices Portland Maine

a paper advertisement touting the cost advantages of warming with oil over gas has been known as inaccurate by a state power authoritative, and a cautionary note for residents making lasting decisions on how to heat their houses.

The Maine Energy Marketers Association, previously the Maine Oil Dealers Association, ran the ad included in its MaineEnergyFacts.com promotion. It really wants to discourage more domiciles and companies from converting from oil, the state’s dominant home heating gas, to contending alternatives, particularly gas as well as heat pumps.

The full-page ad in last week’s northern version associated with the Forecaster targets Summit propane, which found Maine from Colorado in 2013 with big growth plans for Kennebec Valley in addition to Portland suburbs of Falmouth, Cumberland and Yarmouth.

The ad compares a minimal cash price of heating oil this summer in Portland area – $1.70 gallon – because of the recently authorized residential price for Summit customers for the whole winter months – the equivalent of $2.49 a gallon. A smiley face tops the $1.70 cost, and a frowning face with a teardrop is above the $2.49.

Copy the advertisement claims Summit’s cold weather prices tend to be 46 % more than the oil equivalent in better Portland.

But Lisa Smith, a senior planner at the Governor’s Energy workplace just who monitors heating fuels through a weekly statewide review, stated the advertising is misleading as it compares a single, low price at one-point eventually with a reliable rate approved because of the Public Utilities Commission the cold weather.

Normal home heating oil costs in Maine rose steadily from about $2 a gallon in 2004 to nearly $3.70 a gallon in 2014, except for a sharp plunge throughout the 2009 recession. Before 2 yrs, though, they usually have dropped off a cliff, averaging $1.86 a gallon for the 2015-2016 home heating period.

“Based on historic information, ” Smith said, “prices rise inside wintertime with an increase of demand. No-one knows what is going to occur in 2010. But contrasting a non-heating season price to a heating-season pricing is researching apples with oranges. it is making the presumption that oil rates won’t modification. And everybody knows that’s incorrect.”

But Jamie Py, president of this power entrepreneurs group, stated his goal was to make a straightforward contrast between two known costs – oil today and also the PUC-approved rate for Summit.

“I’m not saying ($1.70) may be the price of oil the winter, ” he stated. “I don’t know what the buying price of oil can do. It Might go-down.”

In the advertisement, an asterisk at Summit’s $2.49 price notes the transformation from therms, which can be how fuel is assessed, to gallons, and claims the price is dependant on the PUC winter rate. Py had been asked the reason why the $1.70 oil cost performedn’t add a disclaimer about how precisely it was determined. He said he could have done that, but performedn’t think about it.

A spokeswoman for Summit said the organization does not discuss competitor marketing.

RETAIL OIL COSTS STILL DEPRESSED

Nevertheless the advertising had been prompt in Portland’s north suburbs. It ran just like Summit was attempting to patch up a public relations misstep.

In early September, Summit had emailed its 3, 000 house customers to state their prices would-be rising 154 % starting Oct. 1. That angered a number of consumers. Nevertheless the jump was calculated off an unusually-low summer time price that received small attention, because individuals don’t temperature in the summer. The pending wintertime price actually is 20 % below a year ago.

Summit delivered a second email to try to clear up the confusion.

The event ended up being another blow for company that found Maine when oil prices were near record levels and home owners had been in need of choices. But once oil rates folded, fascination with natural gas fell off.

The global glut of crude oil will continue to depress the retail cost of home heating fuels and gas. The most-recent federal Energy Information management data implies a small increase in crude prices this winter, however the agency’s outlook for heating fuels won’t be introduced until the following month. At the same time, Maine’s statewide average cost for home heating oil is $1.88 a gallon, relating to Smith’s most recent study.

One section of wide contract is low oil rates have now been a true blessing for Mainers.

Using federal power data, Smith looked over the impact of dropping costs on Maine’s household economic climate. She calculated that Mainers spared $365 million last year throughout the 2013-14 home heating season, if the normal price had risen up to $3.71 a gallon.

Low prices also have because of the oil-heat industry a reprieve and a way to staunch the bleeding.

Maine still leads the nation in share of homes heated with oil. But penetration has actually dropped from a peak of 80 per cent in 2000, to 74 % this year, to 67 percent in 2014, according to U.S. Census information. During that duration, gas, propane and lumber found market share. Numerous Mainers in addition set up high-efficiency electric-heat pumps.

THE ARGUMENTS AGAINST GAS HEAT

And so the challenge for the oil-heat business will be slow that conversion. Highlighting today’s affordable prices is certainly one strategy.

Py’s team is doing this with economic help from the nationwide Oilheat analysis Alliance. Through a work of Congress, the group is authorized to assist provide more-efficient oil heat and heated water to consumers and it is financed through a $0.002 per gallon levy on home heating oil. Alliance money is assisting buy the website and advertising, Py stated.