Maine marked a dubious milestone last week as home heating oil for the first time topped $3 per gallon. Even adjusted for inflation, that price is higher than the previous peak in 1981. If prices hold at that level or rise further, many Maine households will either shiver through the next several months, forgo other needed purchases or both.

It may come as a surprise that Maine is largely on its own in crying the No. 2 oil price blues. Just 7 percent of U.S. households use oil to heat their homes; in Maine, 80 percent of homes are heated with oil.

There are alternatives to oil-fired home heating systems, but none is as promising as biofuels that come from wood, an abundant, renewable resource. John Kerry, director of the Governor’s Office of Energy Independence and Security, believes that if state and local governments do their parts to jump-start wood and wood-waste pellet production, homeowners could see significant reductions in their winter heating bills in the coming years.

What Mr. Kerry would like to see researched, developed and refined here are pellet-burning furnaces, which could use forced hot air or hot water baseboard to deliver heat, just as oil-fired furnaces do, and heat an entire house.

A decade ago, pellets were not always available for purchase; many brands came from agriculture waste such as corn stalks in the Midwest. Now, entrepreneurs are realizing that Maine is well-poised to become a producer of wood pellets. A plant is operating in East Corinth, another is planned for a former lumber mill in Strong, and three or four others have been proposed.

The arguments for supporting wood-based biofuels are many. Mr. Kerry said that over the last four years, some $600 million in gross state product has left Maine in the form of petroleum purchases, enriching refineries in the North Sea and Venezuela. If more homes burned Maine-made wood pellets, more of that money would stay in-state.

The pellets, because they are compressed, dry and consistent in density and size, burn efficiently, delivering a high amount of heat per ton. And their burning produces little in the way of greenhouse gases.

Though less than 10 percent of Mainers list burning wood as their primary source of heat, most will remember their parents or grandparents stoking the old Clarion in the kitchen or the massive wood furnace in the cellar. Pellets are merely a refined version of that familiar old fuel, with a lot less work.

Mr. Kerry also correctly urged conservation to reduce heating oil consumption. With one of the oldest housing stocks in the nation, the Maine homestead might need better or more insulation and newer windows and doors.

You may not be able to use the wood lot to fill the tank in the pickup or SUV, but biofuel, unlike oil, does quite literally grow on trees. Maximizing its home heating potential is an obvious goal for Maine.