No Compo for Fuel Oil Customers
Pre-paid heating oil contracts are a good way to lock in lower summer prices ahead of winter. But some customers have been left out of pocket when heating oil firms have gone out of business. (image: masslive.com)
The Pennsylvania attorney-general’s office is warning that thousands of customers who were cheated in a pre-paid heating oil scam are unlikely to be reimbursed.
Customers of A&B Fuel, whose advance heating fuel payments disappeared when the company’s owners skipped town, face little prospect of restitution, poconorecord.com reports.
A Wayne County court finalized the company’s bankruptcy in 2010, two years after owners Arthur and Beverly Baio of Gouldsboro filed for personal and corporate bankruptcy. Consumers filed millions of dollars in claims for prepaid heating oil and propane that went undelivered after the company suddenly stopped making fuel deliveries in December 2007. Thousands of customers who had pre-purchased winter oil and gas are thought to have been affected.
Complaints poured into the state attorney general’s office, which launched an investigation into A&B’s business practices. The state subsequently filed a lawsuit against the Baios for violating consumer protection laws. It accused them of deceptive business practices – knowingly accepting payment for a product or service they could not provide.
Though the couple filed for bankruptcy, putting the state’s case on hold, the bankruptcy court declared that the Baios were still responsible for $975,000 in debt. But Pennsylvania’s Senior Deputy Attorney-General J.P. McGowen this month wrote to cheated customers with claims against the company warning that no funds were available for restitution.
“I do caution, however, that the prospect of a significant recovery remains slight.”
The attorney general’s office had been unable to identify any assets that could be paid to creditors, including customers who were left without heat. The office would continue to monitor the Baios’ ongoing financial condition. If monies become available, the auditor-general would make a distribution to creditors, the letter said.
The case of A&B is sadly not an isolated one. With the global recession and volatile world oil prices, other heating oil firms have been caught short after taking money for advance oil delivery contracts which they later were unable to honor.
The situation has sparked warning about the danger of pre-paid heating oil contracts from the Maine attorney-general and attempts at tougher consumer protection legislation in New Hampshire. HeatingOil.com recommends customers compare heating oil dealers and study contracts before signing up to pre-paid oil agreements and make sure you only deal with reputable, licensed dealers.
Stephen King Offers Heating Oil Aid
Renowned horror writer Stephen King is raising money for heating oil so low income families in his Maine home town are not forced to endure the freezing winter without heating fuel. (image: guardian.co.uk)
International horror writer Stephen King is raising money to prevent low-income Maine households that rely on heating oil going cold this winter.
The best-selling author has penned classic hair-raisers such as Misery and The Shining. He is trying to raise $70,000 through several radio stations he owns to buy heating oil for vulnerable Mainers in Bangor as federal heating assistance cuts start to bite. The native Mainer will double the amount raised up to $140,000.
“This economy is terrible and [wife] Tabitha and I both worry so much about Bangor because it truly is a working-class town and we are always looking for ways to help, and right now this is a great need,” King told the Bangor Daily News this week.
“And on top of it the price of fuel continues to rise. The cost goes up, the need goes up and the assistance goes down. That’s the bottom line. That’s what is happening.”
The Federal Government has announced sweeping cuts to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), slashing the $5 billion heat aid fund by more than half in a drive to reduce the federal deficit.
The Maine State Housing Authority has been told to expect $23 million in heating oil assistance this winter, down from $55.6 million last year. The situation is similar across the Northeast states, where millions of homes rely on heating oil for warmth during the harsh heating season.
But the Energy Information Administration is forecasting the highest average residential heating oil prices on record this winter. There are fears spiking prices combined with high rates of unemployment across the US and a faltering economy, there will see record numbers of struggling families seeking heat aid assistance.
King grew up in Bangor Maine, where the average winter temperature hovers around freezing.
He now spends the cold winter months in Florida. But he returns with his wife to Bangor and a home in Center Lovell.
The heating oil assistance is being raised through his Stephen and Tabitha King Charitable Foundation.
The Bangor News reported that people were “desperate to find help to fill their oil tanks.” The State governor plans to seek funds to fill the gap from the Maine Legislature.
Spectacular Rhode Island Heating Oil Spill
A roading contractor accidentally sliced through a high pressure heating oil pipe, sending oil fuel spurting three stories into the air in East Providence. (image: telegraph.co.uk)
At least 56,000 gallons of home heating oil spurted three stories into the air, gushing onto roofs, trees and into storm water drains, when a roading contractor accidentally ruptured a high-pressure pipe.
The incident happened Wednesday in East Providence when the construction worker severed the oil pipe with an excavator, projo.com reports. The 16-inch oil line is used to unload home-heating fuel from barges to the Capital Terminal Corp.
The East Providence Fire Department evacuated surrounding businesses after receiving a 911 call about the spill. Construction crews were building a new road near the city’s waterfront. The $6.6-million project is managed by the state Department of Transportation and being built by Cardi Corp, whose contractor was operating the excavator.
The Coast Guard says a small amount of oil also entered the Seekonk River. The pipeline is due to be repaired this week.
“The outfall has been boomed, the oil contained, and crews will continue to monitor the area,” a Coast Guard statement said.
The 56,000 gallon spill is more than twice the size of initial estimates last week. About 20,000 gallons had been recovered as of Thursday. The Coast Guard also said as much as 108,000 gallons of oil may still remain in the damaged pipeline. The exact amount will not be known until the pipe is repaired.
The state Department of Environmental Management, Coast Guard and Capital Terminal Corp. will supervise the repair and spill remediation work.
Heating oil is considered a hazardous material and spills must be cleaned up according to stringent state regulation by licensed professionals. The oil can cause environmental concerns and pose human health risks if it seeps into soil and waterways.
Heating oil spills or leaks from old corroded tanks can set homeowners back many thousands of dollars as the entire tank often needs removing along with large areas of contaminated soil.
Meanwhile, New Jersey officials are still testing water supplies following a heating oil spill in New York State. Up to 5000 gallons of oil flowed into the Ramapo River after XTreme Comfort heat fuel company was damaged by raging waters during Hurricane Irene.
Heating Oil Company Fined $15k For Oil Spill
Using an insured, licensed oil dealer will protect homeowners from the vast majority of potential liability in the case of a home heating oil delivery spill. (image: heatingoil.com)
A Boston heating oil company has been fined more than $15,000 after flooding a basement with heat fuel, thebostonchannel.com reported this week.
A technicians working for Dorchester-based Brown Oil Company flooded the basement of a multi-family home in Boston with 92 gallons of heating oil, Massachusetts environmental officials said. The incident happened on January 26 and was the result of human error.
By law, companies must notify the Department of Environmental Protection within two hours of any spill. However, the MassDEP said the company did not alert authorities for five days. To make matters worse, the company downplayed the incident, initially saying the spill only involved 20 gallons
Heating oil spills can cause serious environmental harm if they seep into waterways, polluting streams, bird and aquatic life. They also pose health risks to humans from toxic fumes or drinking water contamination.
The oil is considered a hazardous material and must be cleaned up by licensed professionals according to stringent state regulations. It can cost upwards of $50,000 to remedy a spill.
Most home oil spills occur during filling by contractors during botched oil deliveries. Using an insured, licensed oil dealer will protect homeowners from the vast majority of potential liability. But spills can also be caused by old, leaking tanks.
“The spill itself was attributed to an error by the delivery attendant who connected to the wrong house, an unfortunate, but manageable incident,” said MassDEP Northeast regional office director Richard Chalpin.
Yellowstone Pipeline Spill Worse Than Initially Feared
About 1200 barrels of crude are thought to have spilled into Montana's Yellowstone River when a pipeline ruptured in severe flooding. (image: timesonline.com)
Officials now believe the amount of oil that spilled from an Exxon Mobile pipeline into Montana’s Yellowstone River is well above previous estimates, greatfallstribune.com reported.
About 750 people are now involved in the cleanup operation but more may need to be brought in. The oil company initially estimated that up to 1000 barrels of oil had spilled from the 12-inch pipeline, which runs from Silvertip to a refinery in Billings. The facility processes crude oil from Wyoming and Alberta, Canada into gasoline and ultralow-sulfur diesel, according to the Exxon’s Web site.
But officials now say up to 1200 barrels of oil may have been released, the equivalent of more than 50,000 gallons, which is 20 percent worse than earlier estimates.
Severe flooding is thought to have caused the pipeline to rupture. Built in 1991, it met all regulatory requirements and was last inspected in December.
Federal authorities have ordered ExxonMobil to make safety improvements to the ruptured pipeline.
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration issued a corrective action order requiring ExxonMobil to re-bury the pipeline underneath the Yellowstone River bed to protect it from external damage. The oil company will also have to conduct a risk assessment on the pipeline where it crosses any waterway.
“The safety of our nation’s pipelines is a priority and the investigation into this incident is ongoing,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement.
“It is our responsibility to ensure pipelines are safely delivering energy to U.S. households and businesses, and when companies are not living up to our safety standards, we will take action. We will continue to work with the EPA, while ensuring that those responsible are held accountable.”
As the flood waters have receded, new contamination has been found. Water levels on the Yellowstone have dropped six feet since the July 1 accident. Hundreds of logjams and debris piles, many coated in a layer of drying crude, now litter its banks and islands.
State officials and Environmental Protection Agency officials have rejected the idea of burning the piles. On Friday they said the debris will have to be torn apart, run through wood-chippers and hauled away to landfills.
EPA on-scene coordinator Craig Myers said the work will take more people than the 750 ExxonMobil now has in Montana for the spill, which environmental officials want cleaned up by September 9.
“They’re planning on ramping that up in short order,” Myers said as he toured an area along the river where dozens of cleanup workers were cutting down oil-fouled trees and plants.
ExxonMobil spokeswoman Claire Hassett said: “We intend to bring in the resources we need to ensure the cleanup is conducted efficiently and thoroughly.”
The investigation into why the pipeline broke could take months to complete.
Woman Charged With Embezzling From Heating Oil Company
Heating oil dealers and customers have been struggling with spiraling fuel costs after being hit by a freezing winter and cool spring. (image: americanprogress.org)
A Vermont heating oil company employee is charged with stealing customers’ cash fuel oil payments and embezzling more than $220,000 from her employer.
Nancy Poirier, of Williamstown, was in charge of financial accounts at the Barre office of Trono Fuels Inc from 2002. Court papers allege Poirier stole more than $220,000 from the company over five years, the Burlington Free Press reported.
As the accounts receivable manager, Poirier accepted cash and checks from customers as payment for fuel oil and posted those payments to the company’s accounting system. But between January 2005 and July 2010, she stole numerous cash payments and altered the company’s accounting records in a bid to conceal her crimes, the indictments allege.
Poirier is charged with one count of embezzlement. Her alleged crimes were only picked up when Trono Fuels conducted an in-house audit about a year ago. She was indicted last month in the US District Court in Burlington but pleaded not guilty at an arraignment on Thursday.
Trono Fuels owner Peter Trono said the alleged embezzlement affected the company’s ability to purchase oil and the contributions it made to its employees’ 401(k) retirement plans.
Prior to the audit he had not suspected Poirier of wrongdoing and he wanted her sentenced to a lengthy prison term if found guilty to deter others from committing similar crimes.
“It’s very significant,” Trono said. “It’s a quarter of a million dollars. It’s a lot of money.”
Heating oil dealers and their customers have been battling high oil costs and suffered through an unseasonably cold winter and spring. Many heating oil dealers have gone out of business and a record number of heating oil customers have turned to federal fuel aid grants to help pay spiraling energy bills.
If Poirier is found guilty of embezzling, HeatingOil.com backs Trono’s calls for a stiff sentence to deter other would-be criminals from profiteering as others struggle to heat their homes or keep their businesses afloat.
We’ll keep you updated on this case.
Maine Supreme Court Rejects Appeal of Former Heating Oil Co. Owner
Nick Curro (image: wmtw.com)
The Maine Supreme Court tossed out the appeal of Nick Curro, the former owner of multiple heating oil companies in the Northeast, accused of not delivering fuel that customers had already paid for, WMTW Portland reported this week.
The Maine attorney general originally ordered Curro and his main company Price-Rite Fuel to pay $393,735 in restitution to 313 of the customers he’d ripped off, and pay a $250,000 civil penalty fine. Curro had also operated Perron Oil and Veilleux Oil. The court agreed if restitution was completely paid in five years or less, the civil penalty would be reduced to $25,000.
Seeking an appeal, Curro argued the court had made mistakes imposing the civil penalty and failed to comply with a 10-day notice regulation before filing the complaint against him.
Supreme Court justices struck down the request, countering that the 10-day notice rule didn’t apply in this case and there was sufficient evidence to justify the lower court’s initial ruling.
Heating Oil Company Boss Admits Fraud
A former home heating oil company boss faces up to 30 years in jail after pleading guilty to banking fraud. (image: gaddywells.com)
A heating oil company president has admitted banking fraud and faces a prison sentence after his firm went bust owing thousands of customers with prepaid heating oil contracts.
Christopher Carr, 55, of Westport Connecticut, could be jailed for up to 30 years and fined up to $9 million, the Hartford Courant reported.
Carr was the president of F&S Oil Company Inc, which closed abruptly in March 2008, leaving more than 5000 customers who paid more than $3 million for heating oil in advance with worthless contracts, Forbes.com reported.
F&S Oil, pleaded guilty to a single count of bank fraud for overstating company receivables to collect between $2.5 million and $7 million on three lines of credit.
Federal prosecutors said Carr falsified the oil company’s cash flow to fraudulently obtain loans from Citizens Bank in an unsuccessful effort to salvage the struggling business. F&S Oil ran into financial problems when a plan to build a biodiesel plant was delayed, increasing construction costs. The plant was being financed by Citizen Bank loans and money from pre-paid heating oil contracts, WestportPatch.com reported.
F&S Oil folded owing thousands of customers millions of dollars in undelivered prepaid fuel. (image: wfsb.com)
F&S filed for bankruptcy protection in early 2008. State officials later recovered $1 million for customer reimbursements. Carr will be sentenced on September 7.
Meanwhile, exorbitant expense claims – much of it for golf outings – by the company’s owner Richard Stevens, were also behind the F&S Oil’s collapse, federal prosecutors said. Stevens was jailed for five months in March for failing to pay federal income tax of about $230,000 in personal expenses he billed the company in 2006 and 2007.
“Taken together, it’s fair to say that Stevens and his immediate family sucked $2,144,589 out of the company at a time the company had cash needs and was seeking to expand by building a biodiesel plant,” court documents said.
F&S Oil is the latest in a spate of heating oil companies that have gone under while owing customers for prepaid fuel. Many of the companies ran into problems because of tough economic conditions and soaring oil costs.
Prepaid heating oil contracts offer customers the chance to lock in fixed prices and are often popular in summer when demand is light and prices tend to dip. But Maine’s Attorney General warned this month that customers considering the purchase of oil on prepaid contracts should investigate companies before signing up and make sure they offer one of three forms of consumer protection to guard against being burned.
HeatingOil.com also recommends consumers do their homework before signing up to prepaid heating oil contracts, including checks on the company with the Better Business Bureau and your local department of consumer affairs.
NJ Heating Oil Tank Replacement Fund Runs Dry
A special fund to help New Jersey residents replace rusting heating oil tanks or pay for environmentally damaging oil spills has run dry, creating a backlog of applicants and millions of dollars in cleanup operations. (image: John Moore/Getty Images via propublica.org)
A special fund set up to help replace New Jersey’s rusting home heating oil tanks and pay for cleanup costs after damaging oil spills has run dry.
It means about 1300 homeowners will not get financial assistance next year, creating a backlog of spill cleanups worth an estimated $33 million, NJ.com reported.
Environmental advocates warn the New Jersey oil tank fund’s demise will see fewer old tanks replaced, resulting in more environmental disasters.
The fund was created in 1997. It gave eligible applicants grants or loans to pay for upgrades to old or leaking storage tanks and also covered oil spill cleanups. A portion of the state’s corporate business tax was used to fund the scheme. But the scheme has run out of money as the state government diverted the funds to other priorities while expanding the number of people and institutions eligible for the program.
Home heating oil spills can cause serious environmental damage as the oil seeps into soil, rivers and lakes, potentially contaminating drinking water and affecting bird and aquatic life. The oil is considered a hazardous material and must be cleaned up by licensed professionals according to stringent state regulations. It can cost upwards of $50,000 to remedy a major spill.
The average underground home heating oil tank holds between 550 and 1000 gallons of oil. They are usually made of steel and can suffer from corrosion after years of use without proper maintenance.
The New Jersey fund had paid for 12,587 projects to December 2010, according to the state Economic Development Authority, which oversees the fund with the Department of Environmental Protection. The department’s site remediation program assistant commissioner, David Sweeney, said residents were legally responsible for any spill.
“There will be cases where homeowners don’t have the money to do it, and if it ranks high enough, we’ll go in there and then we’ll put a lien on the property.”
The EDA warned last year that the tank fund could run out this year and urged lawmakers take action. But no changes were made. Like many state governments, New Jersey is trying to balance its books after the recession. The federal government is also considering slashing the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which gives financial aid to homeowners struggling with winter energy bills.
Controversial Home Heating Oil Tax May Be Dropped
Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee may be forced to dump a proposed heating oil tax amid opposition and better than expected state finances. (image: joemygod.blogspot.com)
Home heating oil consumers in Rhode Island who are bracing for the introduction of a new fuel tax may be in for a reprieve thanks to an unexpected state budget surplus.
In March, Governor Lincoln Chafee proposed a sweeping new two-tier tax package to help pay for the state’s looming $331 million budget deficit. It was to include a controversial new 1 percent sales tax on a host of goods and services that had previously been exempt from taxation.
They included home heating oil, kerosene, propane, wood and other fuels. The new 1 percent tax – which would not apply to natural gas and electricity as they are already subject to a different state tax – was projected to raise $85 million – adding an estimated $24.25 to the average homeowner’s annual heating oil costs.
The proposal sparked an angry response from heating oil dealers, homeowners and social service agencies. It was seen as particularly unpalatable because many households had just endured a freezing winter with soaring home heating oil prices, sparking a record number of applications for financial heating aid assistance to cover rising winter energy bills.
However, Governor Chafee may be forced to back down on the tax following better than expected state revenue figures, Projo.com reported Monday. A report this week shows the state’s revenues for the first 10 months of the fiscal year are $76.9 million better than expected. On Friday Governor Chafee’s office released a statement hinting that the heating oil tax – roundly criticized by many state legislators – might be dropped.
Governor Chafee has long anticipated improving May revenue estimates and has proposed that any revenue surplus be dedicated to reducing the 6 percent sales tax rate or retaining the exemption on some items now proposed to be subject to the sales tax, such as home heating oil and manufactured goods.
Key lawmakers have already signaled that they consider much of the taxation package unacceptable, Projo.com reported. In mid-April, House Speaker Gordon D. Fox ruled out passage of the new two-tiered tax as proposed, saying:
Governor Chafee’s proposed multi-tiered sales-tax approach is unacceptable…Particularly offensive are the items proposed on the 1 percent list, such as home heating oil, water for home-use consumption and taxes impacting the manufacturing industry.
Should the proposed tax be dropped it would be a victory for heating oil dealers in the region, who had vowed to fight the tax package on behalf of customers. Speaking in March, Oil Heat Institute of Rhode Island executive director Julie A. Gill argued the proposed tax would unfairly burden many homeowners who were already struggling to pay high energy costs.
“If they can’t afford what they’re paying for now, then how can they pay more?”
New Heating Oil Tax to be Levied on New Yorkers
Soaring heating oil costs have sparked proposals for a new fuel tax on New York City apartment dwellers. (image: housingnyc.com)
New York City apartment dwellers who rely on heating oil to keep warm look set to be hit by a new fuel tax to offset landlords’ rising oil costs.
The city’s Rent Guidelines Control Board approved a proposed schedule of rent increases this week. The proposed changes include a new 1 percent surcharge on tenants to cover soaring heating oil costs, the New York Observer reported Wednesday.
The move follows an announcement last month by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg that authorities were phasing out dirty-burning number 4 and 6 heating oils and accelerating conversion to cleaner fuels like natural gas and low-sulfur number 2 heating oil, which is commonly used in people’s homes. The changes aim to reduce air pollution and improve people’s health.
Like crude and gasoline, heating oil prices have soared this year on the back of growing global oil demand, supply concerns sparked by unrest in North Africa and the Middle East, and a weakening US dollar. Demand for heating oil spiked this winter with unseasonably cold conditions in which New York and other parts of the nation were effectively shut down for several days by severe snowstorms. The bitterly cold weather helped push up the price of heating oil and landlords – like homeowners – have therefore faced mounting fuel bills. New York landlords now claim the new surcharge is necessary to offset a 23 percent spike in fuel prices.
Under a section titled “Proposed Fuel Adjustment”, the Rent Guidelines Control Board has proposes a 1 percent increase in addition to other rental increases “where heat is provided to a dwelling unit at no charge to the tenant”.
But the board’s decision has incensed tenant groups, who are already facing sizable one and two-year rent hikes of between 3 and 9 percent, the Observer reported. Long-time tenants’ spokesman Michael McKee said the board was simply rewarded landlords who had not yet made the switch to clearer and cheaper fuels. “They just encouraging waste.”
The board’s proposed rental increase document makes no distinction between whether an apartment subject to the new tax is heated by dirty number 6 or cleaner number 2 oil. The levy would therefore appear to apply to both.
Number 4 a 6 heating oils are sticky, soot-laden remains of the refining process. The black smoke emitted by burners burning number 4 or 6 oils is full of particulates and sulfur dioxide. The two dirty heating oils are thought to be responsible for 80 percent of the city’s air pollution.
Under the city’s new clean heating rules, number 6 oil is supposed to be phased out by 2015 and number 4 oil by 2030. Furthermore, all heating oil burned in NYC will have to contain 1500 parts per million (ppm) of sulfur or less and at least 2 percent biodiesel from October this year.
Mayor Touts NYC Clean Heating Oil Mandate at Earth Day Event
Mayor Bloomberg outlined future plans for the PlaNYC initiative, which includes a phasing out of dirty number 4 and number 6 heating oils by 2030. (image: flickr.com via observer.com)
On Friday, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg drew fresh attention to the city’s planned phase-out of inefficient and dirty-burning number 4 and number 6 heating oils at an event celebrating Earth Day. The mayor’s event at a Harlem performing arts space was primarily a progress update on the city’s PlaNYC: A Greener, Greater New York initiative, but included a detailed rundown of the clean heating oil plan, called the Clean Heat Campaign. According to a press release from the mayor’s office,
The City has today adopted a rule that phases out the use of heavy heating oils and will accelerate conversion to cleaner fuels like natural gas and low-sulfur #2 oil through a combination of incentives, streamlined permitting, education and collective action.
The event marked the enactment of clean heating oil rules that were introduced in January of this year aimed at phasing out the use of number 6 heating oil in New York City by 2015 and the use of number 4 heating oil by 2030. Heating oils number 4 and 6 are known as residual fuels, and constitute the sticky and soot-laden remains of the refining process. The black smoke emitted by burners fueled by number 4 and 6 oils is full of particulates and sulfur dioxide, both of which are extremely harmful to the respiratory health of local residents.
The city is encouraging building owners to switch their heating systems to run on natural gas or low-sulfur number 2 heating oil, the fuel utilized by most residential heating oil consumers. Under a separate mandate signed into law by Mayor Bloomberg last summer, all heating oil burned in New York City will have to contain 1,500 parts per million (ppm) of sulfur or less and at least 2 percent biodiesel beginning in October of this year.
Big Energy Conference in Atlantic City
A major trade show for the energy and home fuel sector takes place next month in Atlantic City. AREE Atlantic Region Energy Expo is on at the Atlantic City Convention Center from May 3 till May 5. Billed as the Mid-Atlantic’s premier energy, fuels and home comfort show, it features scores of exhibitors and trade stands, hospitality evenings and more than 20 education and business sessions. There is also a catered networking event, Over the Ocean, featuring dinner, drinks and camaraderie. Go to www.areetradeshow.com for more details.
Heating Oil Industry Group NEFI Appoints New CEO
Michael Trunzo has been appointed the new leader of the NEFI. (image: suny.edu)
The New England Fuel Institute has appointed a new leader to represent the interests of heating oil dealers and petroleum companies in the region.
Michael C. Trunzo is the organization’s new president and chief executive. He will also serve on the NEFI Board of Directors and the Board of Trustees.
But he faces big challenges in his new role, with record oil prices and severe market volatility amid political instability and pro-democracy protests in the Middle East, NATO strikes on Libya and fallout from a nuclear crisis following twin natural disasters in Japan.
NEFI is an industry organization promoting the interests of its members in the heating oil, propane, diesel fuel and biofuel marketing trades.
NEFI board chairman Howard Peterson said the new CEO had extensive experience as a political lobbyist and brought exceptional skills to the role. Trunzo was “uniquely qualified to meet the challenges and opportunities we currently face as a trade association and as an industry”, Peterson said.
Trunzo has worked at the State University of New York since 2002 as senior associate vice chancellor but was promoted to vice chancellor for government relations in 2008.
He served as SUNY’s chief lobbyist, overseeing the university’s federal, state and local lobbying and its legislative and public policy agendas. Trunzo also ran the New York Network, the state’s television station and production studio.
Prior to his time at the university, Trunzo headed the Empire State Petroleum Association from 1995 until 2002, representing motor fuel and home heating oil dealers in the State of New York.
He has also served as chief of staff to the New York State Lieutenant Governor and executive assistant to New York State Senator Kemp Hannon, and held senior positions with the Town of Islip and the New York State Assembly.
“We are quite fortunate and we look forward to [Trunzo’s] leadership as we further advance our strategic plan and strengthen NEFI in service of its members and the industry,” Peterson said.
Trunzo said he was honored to accept his new position.
“NEFI has a great history of serving the needs of home heating oil dealers and petroleum marketers regionally and nationally, and I will work diligently to continue that tradition.”
He planned to work closely with the six state associations and the Petroleum Marketers Association of America and sister state organizations throughout the US, “as together we strive to ensure a better business environment and consumer offerings for all oil heat and petroleum companies”.
Mr. Trunzo is a graduate of Long Island University, where he earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration. A native New Yorker, he was raised on Long Island and now resides in East Greenbush, New York.
NH Heating Oil Company Pleads Guilty to Consumer Fraud Charge
The New Hampshire State House is dressed in snow during a cold East Coast winter. A NH heating oil dealer has been fined $50,000 after pleading guilty to a felony violation of the Consumer Protection Act. (image: nelight via flickr)
A New Hampshire heating oil company has been fined $50,000 after it filed for bankruptcy while owing customers $16,000 in prepaid fuel contracts, the Boston Globe has reported.
Kidder Fuels Inc, of Northfield, is a family-run business that has operated for more than 50 years. Its owners announced they were closing last July due to the economic climate and volatile oil market.
The heating oil dealer was indicted by a grand jury in Belknap County Superior Court last year and has now pleaded guilty to a felony violation of the Consumer Protection Act.
Kidder Fuels owed at least 22 customers $16,000 through prepaid home heating oil contracts, the Union Leader reported on Thursday. Most of the contracts were issued in July 2009.
The Attorney General’s office said Kidder had failed to deliver all of its orders and failed to refund customers. The company admitted failing to explain to customers how it would meet its fuel contract obligations, as required by law.
The court imposed a $50,000 fine, but suspended payment, ordering restitution to customers through Kidder’s bankruptcy proceedings.
Attorney General Michael Delaney said oil companies that chose to enter into prepaid contracts for home heating oil must comply with consumer protection legislation.
“The Consumer Protection Bureau will continue to prosecute home heating oil companies that fail to do so.”
The Kidder case is the latest in a string of heating oil dealers who have folded owing prepaid customers money. Prepaid customers buy several hundred gallons of heating oil up front at the beginning of winter on the agreement their tank will be refilled as necessary.
But tough economic times, bad financial decisions and unprecedented spikes in oil prices since 2008 have sent many heating oil dealers to the wall.
The cases highlight the need for consumers to vet heating oil dealers before signing contracts, especially if they involve prepaid oil.
Maine Heating Oil Prices Remain Flat Despite Libya, Japan Turmoil
Maine home heating oil prices remained stable during the last week, according to the latest pricing survey. (image: destination360)
The usual reduction in Spring heating oil prices could be offset by dramatic events in the Middle East and Japan, Maine authorities are warning consumers.
The Associated Press reported on Monday that the state’s heating oil prices remained stable during the last week, despite coalition strikes on Libya and the ongoing nuclear crisis in Japan following a devastating 8.9 magnitude earthquake and tsunami.
Average cash prices for home heating oil in Maine dropped by a penny to $3.66 a gallon in the latest survey by the state’s Office of Energy Independence and Security.
The lowest recorded price in the state as of Monday was $3.50 a gallon in southern Maine, while the highest was $3.88 in northern Maine.
Energy office boss Ken Fletcher said home heating oil prices usually fell in Spring as winter demand tailed off. But he warned that markets remained volatile as a result of the developing Libyan conflict and the disaster in Japan, meaning prices may not fall as expected.
Empty Houses, Tight Budgets Make for More Heating Oil Tank Leaks in Oregon
Contractors remove a residential oil tank that was leaking contaminants into the soil. Thousands of old oil tanks in the Portland area are leaking fuel. (image: tigardtimes.com)
Cash-strapped homeowners in Oregon are choosing to ignore possible leaks in their underground heating oil tanks, and as a result leaks and soil contamination are on the rise.
An environmental watchdog says a dearth of housing sales and escalating cleanup regulation costs are contributing to a spike in the number of leaking tanks, the Tigard Times reported on Thursday.
About 1,200 leaking tanks were discovered last year in Oregon alone, but up to 100,000 more are estimated to be spilling their contents into the earth beneath people’s homes.
As well as contaminating rivers, lakes and drinking water, and threatening bird and aquatic life, leaking oil can soak into soil and create poisonous vapor, posing a serious health risk for homeowners.
Oregon Department of Environmental Quality cleanup manager Bruce Gilles said that before the economic downturn, hundreds more leaking tanks were being identified and decommissioned each year. However, fewer people were now checking, apparently afraid they would find a costly environmental nightmare beneath their house.
Most homeowners did not consider decommissioning old oil tanks until they sold their home, Gilles said. Realtors would often not recommend purchase agreements to potential buyers until a home’s tank was tested for leaks or decommissioned.
But with house sales down, fewer people had the money or motivation to check for leaks or decommission aging oil tanks, meaning thousands more were falling into disrepair and leaking into the ground, Gilles said.
Meanwhile, the cost of tank removal and testing had escalated in 2009 when the Environmental Protection Agency declared naphthalene and ethyl benzene, both present in home fuel oil, to be cancer-causing carcinogens.
Leaked heating oil is now considered a hazardous material. Cleaning up spills requires costly soil testing and vapor assessments, and removal by licensed experts. It sometimes means the excavation of large areas of contaminated soil.
Gilles said the new regulations had in some cases doubled the cleanup costs, which can now sting homeowners between $20,000 and $50,000. The unintended consequence of the new standards might have been to convince some homeowners it was better not to look.
Though thousands of oil tanks are leaking throughout Portland, residential home heating tanks are unregulated, meaning no one is checking them to ensure old tanks are in good shape.
“Nobody thinks their tank is leaking,“ said Dana Thompson, whose Portland company Dana Thompson Tanks and Soil empties and decommissions old tanks.
Thompson said the life expectancy of most buried tanks was 15 to 20 years, but most were installed more than 50 years ago.
During one clean up in which there was no above-ground signs of leakage, his crew had to haul off soil contaminated with an estimated 800 gallons of oil.
Underground home heating oil tanks can hold up to 1000 gallons. They are generally made of steel and are therefore subject to corrosion.
Homeowners need to carry out regular inspections on home heating oil tanks and should have them checked periodically by licensed technicians.
When replacing old tanks, heating oil users are advised to decommission underground tanks and opt for stronger, more leak-resistant above-ground models.
Proposed Heating Oil Tax Looms Over Heating Oil Users in R.I.
A contractor delivers heating oil to a Rhode Island home. The state's homeowners could be forced to pay $24.50 more a year to heat their homes if a new home fuel tax is approved. (image: projo.com)
A proposed tax on heating oil would see the average Rhode Island household paying $24.25 more in fuel costs each year, projo.com has reported.
The new tax is being floated by Governor Lincoln Chafee as part of a package to combat the state’s looming $331 million budget deficit.
Chafee proposes a 1 percent sales tax on a host of previously untaxed goods, including “heating fuels in homes and residential premises”.
The fuel tax would raise an estimated $2.17 million for the state. But it comes at a time when homeowners are paying record home heating oil prices amid unrest in the Middle East and on the back of heavy winter demand, sparking concern for those on fixed incomes.
The new tax would be applied to home heating oil, kerosene, propane, wood and other fuels, which have been exempt from taxation for decades. It would not apply to natural gas and electricity, which are already subject to a different state tax.
Using the current average price, a typical household using 650 gallons of oil annually would pay an additional $24.25 if the new sales tax was approved, projo.com reported on Tuesday.
Many US states are now trying to balance their books after being hit by the recession. Chafee has argued his tax package is a way to “share the sacrifice” as Rhode Island wrestles with its own budget blowout.
However, Oil Heat Institute of Rhode Island executive director Julie A. Gill said the new fuel tax would be yet another burden on consumers already struggling to pay their bills.
“If they can’t afford what they’re paying for now, then how can they pay more?”
The institute, which represents 32 heating oil dealers, feared the new tax would cause more pain for consumers and planned to fight the proposal.
There were also larger issues affecting heating fuels, Gill said, such as rampant speculation in global oil markets, which had pushed crude past $100 a barrel in Europe and the US.
Anti-poverty group the George Wiley Centre acting operations manager Maggie Rogers said energy policies needed to focus on “basic human needs”.
She called for the state to establish a new energy assistance program allowing customers to pay only what they could afford based on their incomes.
Heating Oil Thief Caught Red-Handed in Connecticut
A would-be oil poacher was caught red-handed after allegedly trying to steal $64 worth of rouge-hued heating oil for someone’s home tank. The theft of home heating oil is rare in the US. But with skyrocketing oil prices, a New Haven man apparently felt the attempted heist was the worth the risk. Trenton Williams, 39, landed himself an attempted larceny charge after allegedly siphoning 16 gallons of heating oil from someone else’s home
A would-be oil poacher was caught red-handed after allegedly trying to steal $64 worth of rouge-hued heating oil from someone’s home tank.
The theft of home heating oil is rare in the US. But with skyrocketing oil prices, a New Haven man apparently felt the attempted heist was the worth the risk.
Trenton Williams, 39, landed himself an attempted larceny charge after allegedly siphoning 16 gallons of heating oil from someone else’s home, NBC Connecticut reported on Thursday.
Williams is accused of entering a Mill Street property in Middletown, Connecticut with another man and using two pipe wrenches and an oil pump to drain the home’s oil tank – $64 worth. He was arrested last month.
A neighbor spotted the pair entering the house through a back door. Police caught the would-be oil poacher leaving the basement carrying two orange 5-gallon buckets filled with oil. Two more oil buckets were discovered at the bottom of the stairs, police said.
Williams’ alleged partner in crime escaped on foot. It is not known whether he was also clutching an oil stash.
Williams told police his girlfriend used to live in the home and he had permission to take the oil, since she had paid for it. But a witness said Williams did not have permission and had previously been arrested for trespassing on the property.
He was charged with trespassing before an additional larceny charge was laid over the oil heist. He is now free on a $5,000 bond.
Heating oil theft is a serious problem in the UK and Ireland, but is a rare occurrence here in the US. However, rises in oil prices have led to an increase in reported cases since 2008.
Vandalism Suspected in Boston Heating Oil Spill
An oil spill in Boston is believed to have been deliberate. (image: thebostonchannel.com)
Boston police are investigating whether a home heating oil spill which has caused significant environmental damage was an act of vandalism, TheBostonChannel.com reported.
Hazmat officials were called to the Sachem St home in Mission Hill on Sunday after a neighbor smelled gasoline about midday and noticed oil spilling on to a lawn.
Police said it appeared someone had jammed a garden hose down the tank’s fill pipe and deliberately flooded the tank with water. Oil spilled out, overflowing on to a lawn and running down the street, sparking a major cleanup operation and likely criminal investigation.
The motives for the attack remain unclear, but neighbors were shocked by the apparent act of vandalism and said by the time Boston firefighters arrived, oil was everywhere.
“The next thing you know, it all shot out into the street,” one neighbor said.
State Department of Public Work crews laid sand to absorb the oil but it had already entered the catch basin. Boston Fire Department Hazmat personnel secured the scene.
Fire Department worker Fred Ellis said the oil spill was “no accident”.
“From the hose draped on the side - someone intentionally turned the hose on, stuck it down into the fill pipe and filled it up with water.
“There’s gonna be an extensive clean up because in the back of the building there’s an old well or something which is all soiled,” Ellis said. “We have about 30, 40 feet or more impacted below the storm drain and down along the foundation of the building.”
Home heating oil spills can cause serious environmental damage as the oil seeps into soil, rivers and lakes, potentially contaminating drinking water and affecting bird and aquatic life. Such spills are a costly nightmare for homeowners. The oil is considered a hazardous material and must be cleaned up by licensed professionals according to stringent state regulations. It can cost upwards of $50,000 to remedy a spill.
Most home oil spills occur during filling by contractors during botched oil deliveries. Using an insured, licensed oil dealer will protect homeowners from the vast majority of potential liability. But spills can also be caused by old, leaking tanks.
Below ground heating oil tanks can hold up to 1000 gallons. They are usually made from steel and are therefore subject to corrosion and rust after years of use.
In the event of an underground tank leak, the tank must be removed as well as the contaminated soil, meaning homeowners may be forced to excavate a large portion of their yard at huge personal expense.
Tanks generally last 15 to 30 years. Homeowners should ensure they carry out regular maintenance after the first 15 years and check for signs of deterioration to avoid damaging spills and costly cleanup operations.
Also watch out for a sharp increase in oil consumption (which may indicate a leak), changes to the way your boiler runs and changes to any nearby vegetation - especially important when evaluating an underground tank.
It is also recommended to have your fuel storage system inspected periodically by a professional technician. A 2010 Massachusetts law requires homeowners to have their oil supply and return lines inspected and certified by licensed oil technicians – saving people money in the long term by identifying problems early.
Taking out insurance is another good way of protecting yourself financially against the cost of a potential spill.
