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N at u r a l G a s "accomplished neither one of those goals in this draft decision," Herb said. Instead, the draft decision puts the shareholder-owned natural gas companies in the position of having to pay toward the expansion, and it requires homeowners and business that switch to pay for their own equipment, Herb said. That will drive up the costs of expansion. "So the only thing I see about this is a natural gas future in Connecticut that will be more expensive than it is today," Herb said. "Costs will be higher, which is not a bad thing for us." In New York State, meanwhile, the Oil Heat Institute of Long Island (OHILI) is battling a plan by natural gas companies to convert one million residences from fuel oil to natural gas, said Kevin Rooney, chief executive officer of the trade group, which is based in Hauppauge, N.Y. The plan called for the conversion of approximately 500,000 residences that are within 150 feet of a gas line, Rooney said, or already had gas in the home for uses other than heating the dwelling. Virtually all of the residences were in New York City, Westchester County (directly north of New York City) and Long Island, Rooney said. The plan also called for the conversion of another 500,000 residences that are more than 150 feet from a gas line, Rooney said. The plan requires approval from the New York State Public Service Commission. "We opposed it and we filed comments that were quite voluminous," Rooney said. The "in-depth comments… addressed everything from the economics of oil versus gas, the economics of efficiency upgrades versus conversions, the environmental issues attendant to natural gas and also the economic impact that such an action would have on the home oil heating industry," Rooney said. The comments included information describing the size and scope of the fuel oil industry, including the number of jobs it provides and the amount it pays in taxes. Rooney said that the institute's filing to the Public Service Commission included a report by John Batey, technical director of the Oilheat Manufacturers Association, a trade group representing manufacturers of oil-fired equipment. "The whole premise of this action by the Public Service Commission was what we've heard all along," Rooney said – that natural gas is better, cleaner, cheaper, more efficient. The Oil Heat Institute of Long Island challenged each of the "underlying assumptions" that made up the natural gas companies' arguments "as to why the state of New York should encourage and financially incentivize homeowners to switch from oil to natural gas," Rooney said. One of its challenges focused on state energy policy. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in a "state of the state" speech in January 2013, talked about the need to lower energy costs as a mechanism for economic expansion, primarily upstate, Rooney said. The oil heat group used that emphasis on upstate energy costs to undermine the gas companies' proposal. "This is really supposed to be about promoting economic activity and economic expansion and providing jobs for residents in upstate New York," Rooney said. "If that's where the governor started out, how in the hell did this go from an upstate economic improvement program to, 'Let's convert half a million homes in New York City and Long Island?" The Oil Heat Institute of Long Island mounted a public relations campaign, set up a micro-website to spread the word, and "did a lot of talking to legislators – upstate legislators particularly – and we asked them that same question," Rooney said, adding, "This does nothing to help anybody upstate. All it does is enrich the downstate public utilities." Those arguments, and OHILI's filings, were made last spring, Rooney said. "It is still an open case" before the Public Service Commission, he said. "Hopefully the staff of the commission and the governor's office have come to the conclusion that they really need to be focusing on upstate economic development rather than downstate oil-togas conversions." l F O N www.fueloilnews.com | FUEL OIL NEWS | DECEMBER 2013 19