Mass. Heating Oil Dealers Starting to Supply Biofuel Blends
Plant for blending heating oil and biofuel. (image: diytrade.com)
As we reported August 21, a recent Massachusetts law requires that biofuel be mixed into home heating oil. Under the Clean Energy Biofuels Act, Massachusetts home heating oil and diesel fuel must contain 2 percent biofuel starting July 2010. The percent of biofuel then rises, with a target of 5 percent in 2013.
Many Massachusetts heating oil dealers are embracing this mandate and getting ahead of the curve by blending in biofuel now. The Worcester Telegram reported today that the Massachusetts Oilheat Council (representing 350 dealers) strongly supports the new law. According to the Council’s president, Michael J. Ferrante, “This is a fantastic movement in the industry. . . . We helped write the bill.”
Some dealers have already begun selling heating oil–biofuel blends (often called “bioheat”), including Tasse’s Oil in Southbridge, which has been blending biofuel for five years, and Crowley Fuel in North Brookfield, which began delivering a 2 percent biofuel blend last year.
In addition to potentially lowering the carbon footprint of home heating, the biofuel component also contains no sulphur, reducing the overall sulphur content of the blended fuel. This means the fuel burns cleaner and more efficiently, reducing maintenance and cleaning costs. In the future, it may also allow heating systems to be built less expensively, since the cleaner fuel puts less stress on them.
Question marks remain, though. The EPA has not yet determined the greenhouse gas emissions of the renewable fuel, leaving it unclear just how much—or how little—biofuel blends will reduce emissions. It’s also unclear whether or not the mandate will be successfully met, since at present the state lacks the infrastructure to supply and blend sufficient quantities of biofuel. For heating oil consumers, the cost to blend in the biofuel raises the price of home heating oil fractionally—possibly by as little as $0.005 (half a cent) per gallon, but it’s still a cost. However, the heating oil industry in Massachusetts—and the national oilheat industry—is adopting biofuel and foresee it bringing cleaner and eventually cheaper home heating oil.
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Josh Garrett says: says:
Rich-
Thanks for your comment. I’m not sure what your “guess” of biofuel-blended heating oil costing 50¢ more per gallon is based on. As mentioned in the post, many heating oil dealers are already selling biofuel-blended heating oil at a price that is anywhere from $0.005 to $0.03 cents higher per gallon. It was recently reported that a Boston-area dealer is exclusively selling a biofuel blend of heating oil at no extra cost to the customer. Cheer up–the transition to biofuel heating oil is going more smoothly than you think!
Rich Lee says: says:
“$0.005 (half a cent) per gallon”??
That’s really funny. My guess is an additional 50 cents a gallon..
Sadly, because, it’s mandated by the state. So, you will be
forced to pay extra.
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