Of the nearly 7 billion gallons of home heating oil sold each year in this country….about 80% is sold in the Northeast and mid-Atlantics States.
And this winter, the federal Energy Information Administration projects that heating with oil will cost about 28 percent more than last year.
And that's if it's an average winter.
Add in the possibility of a severe winter and those costs go still higher..
NHPR correspondent Shannon Mullen went along on an oil delivery route in southwestern New Hampshire to talk to some customers bracing for record heating costs, and she filed this report.
Disc 1 T619:13 Let’s see, Peterborough, Rindge, Dublin, Harrisville, Nelson, Stoddard, Hancock, Antrim, Bennington, Greenfield, Francistown, Milford, Wilton, New Ipswich, Greenville, Mason, Ashburnham Ma, Gardner, Winchendon, Fitswilliam, Richmond, Winchester, Keene, Swansea, Marlboro, Jaffrey… there’s probably a few I missed.
[FADE JUSTIN’S LIST OF TOWNS UNDER FIRST TRACK]
JUSTIN CARPENTER DELIVERS ABOUT 6-THOUSAND GALLONS OF HEATING OIL EACH DAY.
HE DRIVES FOR ALLEN AND MATHEWSON, AN ENERGY COMPANY BASED IN PETERBOROUGH THAT HAS ABOUT 6-THOUSAND CUSTOMERS.
Ax 1 – Disc 1 T1
0:09 I come to this garage every morning, start the truck up, get all my paperwork ready to go, file through my tickets… I think we have about 45 to 50 stops today… it’s spread out pretty good today.
ABOUT ONE THIRD OF ALLEN AND MATHEWSON’S CUSTOMERS HAVE ALREADY PAID FOR THE OIL THEY’LL NEED THIS WINTER.
THEY LOCKED-IN AT A SET PRICE OVER THE SUMMER, OR THEY’RE ON A BUDGET PAYMENT PLAN…
SO NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS TO THE MARKET IN THE NEXT SEVERAL MONTHS… THEIR COSTS STAY THE SAME.
BUT THE OTHER TWO-THIRDS OF MATHEWSON'S CUSTOMERS WILL HAVE TO SHELL OUT AT WHATEVER THE GOING RATE IS ON DELIVERY DAY.
AND ON THIS DAY, IT’S TWO DOLLARS AND NINE CENTS PER GALLON.
Disc 1 JUSTIN T4 1:40 It’s down, just a bit, and hopefully it’s going to go down some more… people are always yelling at me, I’m the driver, it’s my fault the prices are so expensive, you know… [CUT TO
Disc 1 T6 7:48] It’s thousands of dollars I’ve been printing on these tickets, I mean, I’ve never seen anything like it, it’s a lot of money.
ACTUALLY… THESE ARE RECORD PRICES.
LAST WEEK, CUSTOMERS PAID TWO DOLLARS AND 14 CENTS PER GALLON… THE HIGHEST RATE ALLEN & MATHEWSON HAS EVER CHARGED.
JUSTIN T6 6:08ish I’ve run across people who gambled it and wished they hadn’t. I tell people, go with your first instinct you know? If it’s cheap when they tell you to buy it, buy it, b/c it’s usually going to go up. It’s common sense, when it gets colder, the price is going to go up.
THIS WINTER IS NO EXCEPTION.
PROJECTIONS ARE FOR HOUSEHOLDS THAT RELY ON OIL AS THEIR PRIMARY SOURCE OF HEAT… TO PAY ALMOST 30 PERCENT MORE THAN THEY DID LAST YEAR.
PROPANE USERS CAN EXPECT TO PAY OVER 20 PERCENT MORE
AND HOMES THAT RUN ON NATURAL GAS ARE LOOKING AT A 15 PERCENT INCREASE IN COSTS.
ALLEN AND MATHEWSON PRESIDENT TIM ALLEN SAYS HIS CUSTOMERS KNOW WHAT’S COMING.
Disc 2 T13 23:10 I think there was so much information out there on the news and you know, preparing the public, to pay more for their oil, giving the stories that heating oil is going up, brace yourself… the hard part’s going to be if oil stays high, and it’s costing people $500 to fill their tank, and it’s cold, you know to have that twice in a month, that’s hard on anybody’s budget.
[INSERT NAT MIX HERE & SHORTEN, W/JUSTIN DETAILING THE PROCESS…]
Disc 1 T2 0:04 My name’s Robert Schord and I’m the owner, innkeeper of the Hancock Inn in Hancock, New Hampshire… [CUT TO 1:52] my first year here, oil heating was new to me, they said you need to pre-buy, so we did, then we had 9/11, planes quit flying, price of oil plummeted, so we ended up paying more for it than if we’d just bought out on the open market. So the second year, I didn’t pre-buy, and the exact opposite happened, so from then on I always
pre-bought.
T3 0:00 My name is Tina Call, I live in Hancock, and we use oil for heating our water… whatever the going rate is. We have to cut back anyways because we have a small well, so we’re limited as to what we can do, and luckily we have young enough children that they can bathe together (laughs).
T11 0:10 My name is Sherri Williams, I own Fiddleheads Café in Hancock, NH… [CUT TO 1:32] I’m very careful, I just ordered insulated curtains and shades to help conserve energy, cuts drafts, you have to be aware, I don’t run my heat hot, you do the best you can.
AGAIN, COMPANY PRESIDENT TIM ALLEN.
18:03 We try to inform people, the best thing people can do is update their heating system, esp. old boilers, new products on market can cut costs up to a third, you can also tighten up your house.
BUT ALLEN SAYS HIS COMPANY FACES OTHER COSTS BESIDES JUST THE PRICE OF OIL.
AND THOSE COSTS ARE OFTEN PASSED ON TO CUSTOMERS.
26:30 We get stiffed, there’s a percentage of people that don’t pay…ever… they just don’t pay. They leave or you can’t track them down, and I think it’s a higher percentage than people perceive.
ALLEN HAS A PERSON ON STAFF WHOSE JOB IS ONLY TO COLLECT MONEY…
Disc 2 [CUT TO 26:00] … just the fact that you have somebody on the payroll that really isn’t adding to the production of anything, her sole expense is just for us to get paid, you need to factor that into the price of delivery.
JUST ONE MONTH INTO THE HEATING SEASON, OIL PRICES ARE ALREADY HISTORICALLY HIGH.
AND WITH THE HOLIDAYS COMING, DRIVERS LIKE JUSTIN CARPENTER GET STUCK BEING THE BEARERS OF BAD NEWS.
Disc 1 T13 Justin 3:06 be nice to the oil guy… or propane… don’t shoot the messenger… and if you’re shocked at the price… call the president… it’s not our fault.
FOR N-H-P-R NEWS, I’M SM.
