Northeast US Rationing Heating Oil as Winter Approaches

The sun behind a crude oil pump jack in the Permian Basin in Loving County, Texas, on Nov. 22, 2019. (Angus Mordant/Reuters)

The Northeastern United States is so short on heating oil that the fuel is being rationed in some areas, local officials said.

Chris Herb, president of the Connecticut Energy Marketers Association, told the Boston Herald and Bloomberg News that some heating oil wholesalers in Connecticut are saying that retailers have been placed on allocation, which means they can only get a limited amount of fuel due to low availability.

Retailers then have to ration the fuel to their customers, Herb said. The Epoch Times has contacted the Connecticut Energy Marketers Association for comment.

“There’s just no incentive to store large amount of product,” said Michael Ferrante, president of the Massachusetts Energy Marketers Association, according to Bloomberg. Sam Livieri, vice president of New Haven-based Apple Oil, told the outlet that “we are praying, and I mean it, for a warm winter.”

Prices for the precious fuel have skyrocketed in recent weeks.

Data provided by the U.S. Energy Information Administration shows the average price of a gallon of residential heating oil in Connecticut was $5.79 last week. That’s more than 20 cents from the previous week and more than $1.10 from the week before that when prices were $4.64 in early October, data shows.

Prices for the fuel are also elevated around the Northeast, according to local Connecticut news outlet The Day, which interviewed a local man, Vincent Ukleja, who said he’s paying $5.19 per gallon of heating oil and spent more than $600 to fill up half his tank.

“We’re on a fixed income, and last year, when the prices were sky-high, we barely made it through,” said Ukleja, 68, adding that he’s spent far more this year than in previous years.

Richard Funaro, spokesperson for the Connecticut Office of the Attorney General, blamed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine earlier this year, according to The Day. Echoing complaints issued by the Biden administration, Funaro suggested that price gouging might be occurring.

“There is no running away from what’s happening with the war in Europe and its impact on all fuels. This is not just isolated to heating oils,” Herb also told the paper.

Republicans, however, have targeted the Biden administration’s energy policies, including a series of executive orders issued by President Joe Biden last year to kill the Keystone pipeline, scrap a significant amount of new oil drilling leases, and ending some fuel subsidies. They’ve said that instead, the current administration should reimplement the Trump administration’s “Energy Independence“ policy.

Oil industry officials have also said the current White House has created a climate that discourages investment in new refineries and technology.