It isn’t even summer yet, and people in New England are already fretting about how they’ll pay to heat their homes next winter. The region relies heavily on home heating oil, and prices are well above $4 a gallon. Some families barely made it through last winter’s expensive heating season.
Like most, I’ve heard all of the arguments about how important oil imports are, and how a situation like the one we’re now in affects people who heat their homes with oil, and I agree that this will adversely affect homeowners in Maine and elsewhere who rely on fuel oil
There is an alternative available for those whose homes are equipped with fireplaces: firewood. Yes, wood smoke does pollute the air, and causes respiratory problems. But wood is available, is relatively inexpensive compared to oil, and is natural. It’s always been with us……and it works.
Those who have woodburning fireplaces can and should use them in order that their neighbors who don’t have them can get the oil that they need to heat their homes. As for the cost of that fuel oil, I believe that state governments whose people are affected by the cost of that oil should help alleviate the high cost by providing financial aid to those people who need the help until the cold weather is gone.
The problem here in Maine will be brutal this winter. I live in a portion of Maine where the temperature rarely goes below -20, but not far north of me, -20 is very common. For those of you who have no idea how cold this is, the numbers don’t mean much, but if you are in a house with limited heating, a couple of nights with this will freeze the water in the john, At the present moment, filling up one’s tank with kerosene is well over $600. Fuel oil is just a little bit cheaper than this. In a normally cold winter, you can expect the oil man to come every two weeks, and real winter goes from the end of November to the end of March. If you are on a fixed income, the choice will be eating or heating.
On the other hand, there is a new wood pellet plant being built and we may see a sharp increase in wood pellet stoves. For the state government not to invest in technology to make wood burning the best choice would be callous, but the state gov has been in the hands of the Democrats for almost forty years, and they do not have a good reputation of being far-sighted. LM