A Glenville resident says he came out of retirement because the cost of everything has gone up. To heat his home this winter, he's bought a lot of wood to burn instead of heating oil, which has nearly doubled in price since February. 'I talked to my wood guy the other day, and he said his production has increased tenfold this year.'
Read the full transcript below:
Molly Anderson: This is Northeast Notebook. I'm Molly Anderson. If you've been waiting to switch on the heat, you're not alone.
Kimberly Izar: The cost of living, specifically energy, is something that everyone is feeling.
Molly Anderson: The war in Iran has driven the price of crude oil to record-setting levels. Heating oil is hovering at around six dollars as we head into winter. Compare that to about three dollars last February.
Ron Fonda: I mean, there are people that, they financially just don’t have the means to pay for oil. So what do you do? Freeze?
Molly Anderson: And if the high prices weren't bad enough, many homes that use propane for heat pose logistical issues.
Josh Landes: You have these higher elevation communities. The winters are way harsher for them. Filling up those tanks can be very expensive. It can be very arduous to get access to it.
Molly Anderson: So, what are homeowners doing to save money? And when can Northeasterners expect to be paying less to stay warm?
Kimberly Izar: I think on the supplier side, what we're hearing is that people have never seen prices like this before.
Molly Anderson: Kimberly Izar is a reporter for Radio Catskill. She's been following the cost of heating oil in New York.
Kimberly Izar: I spoke to Mike Taylor, who's the owner of a local energy service provider in Monticello, which is in Sullivan County, and they deliver heating oil, kerosene, propane to both homes and businesses across the tri-state area. They've been doing this for almost 60 years. And he was very straightforward, that these are the craziest prices that he's ever seen. You know, back in the day, you'll refill for the whole season, and hopefully it, you know, gets you so far for a couple months. But instead of people refilling their whole tank, he's finding that people are kind of refilling in smaller amounts. They're kind of maybe doing a quarter of a refill or like, a half of a refill instead of a whole refill of a tank.
Ron Fonda: I delivered heating oil for 15 years.
Molly Anderson: Customers like Ron Fonda, who lives in Glenville in Schenectady County.
Ron Fonda: But I retired three years ago, and I went back to work the beginning of this year. I don't want to say because of the oil prices, but because of the prices of everything else. And now the oil is becoming an issue because now heating season is here.
Molly Anderson: He’s lived in his home for 30 years and put a big addition onto it. He uses his oil-burning furnace to heat the main part of the house and installed a wood stove to heat the addition.
Ron Fonda: Back in the day, in say 30, 40, 50 years ago, that was really the only option at the time was oil. There was an abundant amount of heating oil. I mean, it was cheap. It was before all these places were built, all these developments and stuff. They didn't have gas.
Molly Anderson: Ron took me into his basement to show me his oil burner.
Ron Fonda: I got a bad leg, so I can't walk stairs very well. It's a little musty down here. It was a coal burner, but they converted it. You can see how they tuned it up and put an oil burner in it.
Molly to Ron: Yeah. Oh wow. Okay.
Molly Anderson: Ron's oil expenses have surged in the last year.
Molly to Ron: Could you compare what you were paying this year versus last year?
Ron Fonda: Almost double.
Molly Anderson: In mid-October of last year, heating oil in the Capital District was $3.60 per gallon.
Ron Fonda: My oil supplier that delivers me now is $5.99. So, round that off at $6 a gallon. I have a 275-gallon tank. So do the math. It's, it's quite a substantial amount of money to shell out once a month.
Molly Anderson: So we did the math, and that's $1,647.25 to fill up Ron's entire oil tank. He says last year he used approximately 400 gallons of oil.
Ron Fonda: I just had a HVAC company here the other day to give me an estimate on that oil burner in my basement because it's so old. I wanted to update it, but the price was enormous. It was $10,000 to replace it. So I did a little research of what was the cheaper way to go, and it turns out it was natural gas.
Molly Anderson: Ron says he's topping off his tank for backup this season, but doesn't plan on burning it if he can help it. Ron and his wife are actually arranging to have a natural gas line run to their house. But remember that wood stove that I mentioned? It's only in one area of the home, but Ron is relying on it more and more to heat the entire house.
Ron Fonda: And this is, this is the stove. Kindlewood. This is 55 years old. It was my mom's.
Molly Anderson: So this is your primary heat source, you said.
Ron Fonda: Now it is because of the price of oil. I bought a lot of wood to burn now this year instead of the oil.
Molly Anderson: Ron showed me to the wood shed in his backyard, where logs are neatly stacked in preparation for the autumn chill.
Molly Anderson: Was this always here?
Ron Fonda: No, I built the shed just for that.
Molly Anderson: Really?
Ron Fonda: I talked to my wood guy the other day, and he said his production has increased tenfold this year. Yeah, I mean, he's a local guy that sells firewood, and he says, “I can't keep up with it.”
Molly Anderson: While other, cheaper heating fuel options exist, many people don't have the money to replace an entire furnace or heating system, and some don't have a choice, if only because of where they live. In rural areas, customers need to depend on a big truck to bring them their heating fuel for the entire year. But what happens to homeowners who use propane and access is difficult? WAMC's Berkshire Bureau Chief Josh Landes did some reporting earlier this year on a handful of heating fuel companies that couldn't deliver propane to some customers' homes in Western Massachusetts.
Josh Landes:There was this really, really cold weekend in Western Mass, right? We had like the wind chill had pushed down the temperature to like 30 below zero. This woman Anna Lawrence, you know, she's living in a home that was built during the Civil War, and it relies on propane. And she put it to me straight up, “We're in dire straits without that propane.” A lot of the homes we're talking about, you know, they're not hooked up to a citywide system. They're not hooked up to a larger municipal set of pipes and cords and connectors and what have you. These are homes that are up in the woods, up in the hills.
Molly Anderson: And when companies like Superior Plus Propane weren't refilling tanks, people were left shivering.
Josh Landes: There's an automatic refill system in place that wasn't working. Okay, I talked to people where they were told that this system would go into effect when they drop below a third of the tank. There were people checking their tanks, finding them down to 10%.
Molly Anderson: And if you try to pivot in this situation, say to a different propane provider, you might meet a dead end.
Josh Landes: You can't really jump from train to train on this one, right? Like you're hurtling down the track. So a lot of the people I spoke to, you know, they were really frustrated. They were scared, and it really took shaking all these bushes to get in touch with politicians to ask questions of Superior Plus, who admitted, “Oh we're having delays. Oh it's hard to do it in the middle of the winter.” But like, none of this was satisfying to the people who are sitting up in the hills of, of the Berkshires or the Pioneer Valley. You know shivering in the cold, afraid that the temperature is going to keep dropping in their living room.
Molly Anderson: We’re in fall right now, but winter's coming up. What should people know?
Josh Landes: In many ways, it's, it's early to tell exactly, because for these folks, their problems emerged in February, which is again the heart of the winter. You know, have these companies gotten everything shipshape in time for the season? We don't know right now.
Molly Anderson: Shortly after Josh's reporting in February, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell called on Superior Plus Propane and AmeriGas to remedy delivery issues. WAMC asked Superior Plus Propane how they're ensuring timely deliveries following the issues that some customers were experiencing earlier this year. They responded in part with, "We have focused on adding more drivers, trucks, and customer experience representatives, refining our forecasting and planning, and right-sizing customer tanks.” As we barrel into winter, Kimberly Izar from Radio Catskill says customers are waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Kimberly Izar: They're still waiting for it to either get worse or for it to get better.
Ron Fonda: My wife and I - we can afford it and squeak by, but for the average Joe, you know, they're going to be struggling.
Molly Anderson: Northeast Notebook is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. It was produced by me, Molly Anderson. Our executive producer is Lucas Willard. Our editor is Diane DeVore. Music by Eduardo Rivera. Consider subscribing to Northeast Notebook wherever you get your podcasts. And if you like the show, take a second to rate and review. It really does help others find us. Thanks for listening.
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