The home heating oil industry has a long and proud history, and Fuel Oil News has been there supporting it since 1935. It is an industry that has faced many challenges during that time. In its 77th year, Fuel Oil News is doing more than just holding
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The impact of Phase II on heating oil dealers is expected to be min- imal. "The goal is simply to get through the dairy farms on the way to the lake so they can serve one very large customer," Cota said. A much larger impact on fuel oil dealers would come with approval of Phase III, which is estimated to be about three or four years away. That phase would send the pipeline farther south, into Rutland County, where the gas company could convert about 13,000 fuel oil customers to natural gas. For now, the VFDA's board, in concert with its lawyers, is weigh- ing whether to intervene in the PSB hearing process for Phase II. "Fighting it with lawyers in the Public Service Board hearing room is one option," Cota said. "When a public utility in Vermont wants to do something they have to go before the Public Service Board and ask for a Certificate of Public Good. The board then makes a ruling after listening to t hose that have been given 'party status.'" Party status is gained by claiming economic or environmental injury on behalf of a constituency. The association took that approach on Phase 1 and the PSB granted the dealers' association party status over the objections of Vermont Gas. "So I give them credit," Cota said of the PSB members. "They did hear what we had to say. However, we're disappointed that the Public Service Board didn't recognize the validity of the economic and envi- ronmental arguments against the pipeline. The gas company's claims of economic and environmental advantages over heating oil in the short term and in the long term just don't make sense." A drawback of the hearing process is that it works in some ways as a platform for the gas company to promote itself, Cota pointed out. For example, the run up to the hearing for Phase I, and the public comment period with public attention focusing on the subsequent deliberations of the Public Service Board stretched over a span of more than 12 months. "Vermont Gas has benefited from this year-long approval process, which has essentially doubled as a marketing campaign," Cota said. "The same arguments they used to convince the three-member panel to approve [Phase I of] the pipeline are the same arguments that they use to convert customers." Making a case to the board costs money, Cota added, and that is a factor to be considered as the VFDA board decides whether to challenge Phase II. In the first go-around, the association made the investment. "We felt proud of what we did, what we said, the evidence we provided," Cota said. "We're glad that we did it. It's hard for the average citizen to intervene in a hearing for a Certificate of Public Good. You need lawyers. You need experts." The gas company and its plans pose a big challenge, Cota readily admitted. However, the industry has some power of its own. "We have something that they don't have — we have the relationships and the experience with the customers and the community," he said. "Second- and third-generation family-owned fuel oil companies started out delivering coal and ice in the 1920s. We are Vermont's home energy companies. We are here to stay. That's the message that we've been putting out." Cota also noted that the association will continue to provide con- sumer education materials that tell the benefits of oil heat. "There are many different ways we can help our member companies deal with this foreign-owned utility," he said. "Despite so much talk about how this pipeline is going to change the economic fortunes of the western half of Vermont, "the reality is that we need the deliverable fuel indus- try. We need a vital one because not everyone lives downtown." He called Vermont "a very rural state" and said that customers in rural areas depend on deliverable fuel. Compounding the challenge to fuel oil dealers' business is the state's Comprehensive Energy Plan, adopted in 2011, which recom- mends that Vermont set a path to obtain 90% of its total energy from renewable sources by 2050. "Meeting this goal will require us to virtually eliminate Vermont's reliance on fossil fuels, which we can do through enhanced efficiency and greater use of clean, renewable sources for electricity, heating and transportation," says the state's website for the energy plan. Cota responds, "There are some wishing the deliverable fuel indus- try would just go away. We're not going to go away. We're here to stay. And we're going to fight. We're going to fight for our place in this market because we sell a product that is clean, safe and efficient." www.fueloilnews.com | FUEL OIL NEWS | FEBRUARY 2014 13