What is the future of residential oil?

Tim McElwain

The American Energy Coalition has appointed former Carlin Combustion Technology Executive Vice President and General Manager Thomas J. Tubman as executive director.



An article in this months Fuel Oil News states that this appointment is to give a major boost in the battle to preserve oil heats market share.



AEC Chooses Tubman to Lead Fight for Market Share<img src="http://www.heatinghelp.com/ME2/Images/px.gif" width="1" height="10" alt="" />(4/21/2011)<img src="http://www.heatinghelp.com/ME2/Images/px.gif" width="1" height="10" alt="" />

<span>The battle to preserve oil heat’s market share has received a major boost with the appointment of former Carlin Combustion Technology Executive Vice President and General Manager Thomas J. Tubman as executive director of the American Energy Coalition (AEC).</span>



<span>Tubman’s passion for oil heat and his wealth of connections in every corner of the industry are vital to the cause. The coalition’s mission is to serve as a unified voice in promoting oil heat in direct competition with natural gas and other fuels.</span>



<span> “The top priority is stop the loss of oil-heated homes to competing fuels,” said Tubman. “The first part is getting the message out to people who heat with oil that it’s a great fuel. We want to let them know the benefits of oil heat and to correct the record about the gas utilities and the false advertising they put out.”</span>



<span>With 39 years’ experience in oil heat, Tubman has taken many leadership roles in the industry’s most important initiatives, including the National Oilheat Research Alliance (NORA) and the Oilheat Manufacturers Association (OMA). He is well prepared to unite oil heat dealers, trade associations, manufacturers and other stakeholders in the competitive struggle. </span>



<span>In addition to educating consumers, the coalition will target a larger audience. “We have to get the message out to the environmental community and the legislative community so that they understand that oil heat is a good fuel. We also have to make sure we continue to compile the facts and do the research. Oil is changing, and so is gas. We’re making our fuel more environmentally friendly, while gas is bringing in more LNG and using fracking in the Marcellus Shale, which is not friendly to the environment. We’re pretty close to being on par with natural gas now, and in the next 10 years we’ll be in a better position, and they’ll be in a worse position.”</span>



<span>The AEC has a big job ahead, according to Tubman. “The oil heat community needs to do a better job of getting the message out. Nancy Pelosi didn’t even know that natural gas is a fossil fuel. It’s hard to make good policy with misinformation at the legislative level. Natural gas has done a good job of marketing as a clean, efficient fuel, and they have drawn attention away from the fact that natural gas combustion produces CO2 the same as oil.”</span>



<span>He cited National Grid’s Floe the Polar Bear campaign and the $200 million campaign by America’s Natural Gas Alliance as examples of the aggressive marketing by the gas industry. “We certainly need money to fight that,” Tubman said. “We need help from oil dealers, tank suppliers, software suppliers…everyone who has a stake in oil heat.”</span>



<span>He strongly recommends that oil heat dealers communicate effectively with homeowners. “Companies can use the materials that we have put together to send a strong message out to their customers. They can use our website to educate themselves. We can also provide training. We want to make sure that when people contact an oil heat company and ask questions that they get the correct answers.”</span>



<span>The AEC has three bill inserts or leave behinds available that correct the record about natural gas. The coalition also produced advertisements, including a television commercial than ran recently in Rhode Island and which can be seen on the coalition’s website, <a href="http://www.AmericanEnergyCoalition.org/">www.AmericanEnergyCoalition.org</a>. The AEC site also contains a wealth of comparative information about oil heat and natural gas that will benefit anyone who advocates for oil heat. “Everyone who has contact with customers – including installers and technicians – should know the facts and what to say to customers,” Tubman said.</span>



<span>The AEC will have a booth at the oil heat tradeshows this year, and Tubman is making the rounds now to talk with association groups. “We’re trying to raise our visibility and let people know about all the good work we’ve done already,” he said. “When I talk to groups about getting everyone pulling in the same direction, they get it. They understand that we’re at a critical point and that we need to do this as a team.”</span>

Steamhead

They need

to keep this from happening. As long as the people "servicing" equipment don't do their job, oil will be perceived as dirty and inefficient.

Mark Wright

In Vermont!!!

All companies are cross training.  LP,  wood pellets, Bio-deasel, geo- thermal!!  I teach an HVAC program and I think that oil is becoming a dying breed.  I still teach it and push the NORA bronze for high school kids, but newer technologies and the green movement are taking their toll.



Fortunately, there are still tons of oil systems out there that need smart people to service them and get the most bang for the buck.  So us die-hards are doing what we can to remain a viable career for young people.  It's just that WE all need to multi-task now!  I hope everyone sees this!



mark wright

Charlie from wmass

Steamhead hit the nail on the head

As long as oil units are getting poorly serviced the image of oil is going to keep slipping. Yes gas needs serviced, but the ones that soot up for gas are few and far between. gas units run poorly in a stealth mode you do not get with oil units.

Robert O'Brien

What future?

It will survive for years in areas beyond gas mains,but where NG is available?

Roland_18

Which side are you on boys......

I smell the beginnings of a massive P.R. campaign, replete with inflated claims of heating oil as the ne plus ultra of heating fuels. Gas is dangerous and explosive, Coal is poison , Wood is dirty and full of termites, Electric is the work of the Evil One and kills baby ducks!



OK, so I exagerate just a wee bit. As a consumer, it all comes down to advertising. Buy my stuff because it is superior to all the other stuff. Yes, if you have a product to sell, you must punch it up and make it look all shiny and desirable. I guess it's in our nature as humans to be seduced by the promise that a given thing will make us " feel " superior and smart.



Every fuel has a proper place. There is no one that is inherently superior. Also, the stuff we burn to stay comfortable, is not in infinite supply. Someday it will be too difficult and expensive to harvest that which we squander with abandon today.



I lost my idealistic self long ago. However, there is now an opportunity for the entire heating industry to come together and extole the virtues of frugality and comfort to the average person.  What good is it to have a 90%+ efficient system when the house it's in leaks like a sieve. I could go on but I'm preaching to the choir here.            





    

Jamie Hall

Roland's right...

every energy source has its place, and it is the responsibility of the energy professionals -- in the heating industry, that's us! -- to recommend the best available current technology for each application.  This means a lot of cross training, such as was mentioned taking place in Vermont.  I may also mean, sometimes, telling a client that we really think energy source X would do a better job, but we don't service it; why don't you call Mr. Z -- which is very difficult to do.



There is, however, a serious risk: that one or another energy source may be outlawed or effectively outlawed by taxes, by folks who haven't done the homework but are motivated by one or another special interest group.  We also have a responsibility to be alert for such maneouvres, and to try to counter them.  We already see this with regard to wood burning furnaces in some areas; I wouldn't be too surprised to see both oil and wood outlawed or taxed in other areas.

Mad Dog_2

The Future is Grim.....

I love oil, but as Steamhead pointed out......Mad Dog

CMadatMe

JOBS

Until they figure out how to protect jobs in Utica NY, Lancaster PA, Michigan City and the other cities where US Cast Boilers are made it will stay as is. Does anyone remember reading the article Dan posted last month concerning HESS putting the stop sign on low sulfur content oil in NJ? Why?  One, you might use less, two, protect JOBS...



In reality it is about JOBS and protecting corporations that creat the JOBS..

Chris M_2

Oil Aint Goin Away

There is no other fuel than oil that, per unit, yields as much energy as oil. Oil's here to stay.  The special interest groups will try as they may to kill it, but the number of those getting hit in the wallet are growing, and the special interest greenies will lose out in the end. That said, I'm diversified.. I'm sticking with my Burnham Megasteam for 50% of my home heating, my wood pellet stove for the other 50%, and my electric hot water heater for the dishes and the bath.

Rod

Not a Good Outlook

Oil for heating is history. The only places where oil will still be used is where natural gas isn’t available and the number of those places will be shrinking rapidly as the economic benefit / demand for gas heating increases. I now have oil heat but this next year gas has finally reached my town in rural Maine and from the raw numbers I have run, I’d be a damned fool not to switch over. The higher oil prices go, the faster that payback. With the world demand for oil steadily increasing and the value of the U.S. dollar dropping, oil prices aren’t going any where but up. This “Rah Rah” for oil heating is a waste of time and money, sort of like trying to save the buggy whip. The oil burner guys should have made a residential modulating burner 15 years ago and that might have slowed the transition to gas but now it’s probably too late for that to be of much use. Just my 2 cents.

- Rod