Heating oil prices average $4.60 a gallon in Maine State to develop efficiency strategies

AUGUSTA – The state energy office began its weekly heating oil price survey four months ahead of schedule Wednesday by reporting that the average cash price for No. 2 heating oil statewide now stands at $4.60 per gallon.

During its 18-year history, the survey has been conducted between Oct. 1 and the third week in March, which roughly coincides with Maine’s heating season. But because of rapid price increases, the Governor’s Office of Energy Independence and Security said it started monitoring prices well in advance of when furnaces begin to kick in.

“At today’s prices, Maine will spend more than $7.7 billion on petroleum products, the vast majority of which is paid to foreign oil producers,” said John Kerry, director of the energy office.

He said the survey’s early start was intended to provide Maine families and businesses with the best possible information at a time of rapid price increases, and was the first step in a comprehensive effort by state agencies to help ease the impact.

Gov. John Baldacci has reconvened a task force to consider how the state can use its own resources, leverage private philanthropy and develop strategies to create new investment in energy efficiency and weatherization, Kerry said.

Since the state’s last survey in March, the average heating oil price has gone up 80 cents, or 21 percent. Prices have jumped $1.89, or 70 percent, since the start of the 2007-2008 heating season.

Actual prices ranged from a low of $4.35 at a dealer in southwestern Maine to a high of $4.80 in the eastern part of the state.

The average for kerosene was $4.98 statewide, with lows of $4.93 in the southwest and western regions and a high of $5.12 in northern Maine.

The energy office said the best strategy for reducing the fuel price burden is to burn energy more efficiently, with the first step being an energy audit of one’s home or business.