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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editor's note E D I T O R I A L S T A F F Editorial Office 1030 W. Higgins Road Suite 230 Park Ridge, IL 60068 847/720-5600 Publisher John Prusak 763/383-4402 jprusak@snowgoer.com Editor Keith Reid 847/720-5615 kreid@specialtyim.com Managing Editor Nicholas Upton 763/383-4466 nupton@epgmediaLLC.com Columnists Charles Bursey, Sr. Shane Sweet George Lanthier List Rentals MeritDirect, Jim Scova jscova@MeritDirect.com 914/368-1012 Reprints Debra Welter, dwelter@SpecialtyIM.com P R O D U C T I O N Production Manager – Karen Kalinyak Art Director – Brian Snook A D v E R T I S I N g S A L E S East – Dave Campbell, Associate Publisher 413/528-8835 Cell: 413/717-1007 dcampbell@specialtyim.com Central & South Rich Alden 603/899-3010 Fax: 603/899-2343 ralden@specialtyim.com Barbara Reynolds 603/588-2086 breynolds@specialtyim.com West – Ken Jordan 972/540-2122 Fax: 972/540-2127 kjordan@specialtyim.com M A I N O F F I C E 1030 W. Higgins Road, Suite 230 Park Ridge, IL 60068 847/720-5600 • Fax: 847-720-5601 C U S T O M E R S E R v I C E 847/763-9565 • Fax: 847/763-9569 Fuel Oil News PO Box 2123, Skokie, IL 60076-7823 NORA Returns t here are some good articles that would have competed for our cover spot this month, except something extraordinary happened—NORA was finally reautho- rized. After six years of being exiled in the unfunded wilderness, and its programs being wound down, a grind of low-intensity political maneuvering that has went on since 2010 finally paid off. As most people reading this already know, the National Oil Heat Research Alliance was put in place with a small fee the industry pays on each gallon of heating oil sold, that does not come from our taxes and that legally cannot be passed on to the customer. This money funds a range of industry-supporting projects. These include public education efforts, research and development for higher-efficiency heating appliances and envi- ronmentally friendly heating fuels and quality technician training programs. During NORA's initial run, from 2000 to 2010, these efforts provided significant benefits to the industry in light of the relatively insignificant financial hit required of the industry to fund the program. The natural gas utilities exist in what is, for the most part even with some deregulation, a monopoly situation. They also regularly work with state officials to utilize public funds to support the expansion of their heating solution. And, it's no secret that the utilities play an aggressive game in the marketplace, and can occasionally be fast and loose with the facts in their attempt to grab market share from competing heating fuels. NORA funding has helped the industry get its message out educating the public that today's oil heating solutions are far improved, from both an environmental and efficiency stand- point, compared to previous generations. In fact, today's solutions can be as efficient and environmentally friendly as natural gas, if not more so, with some of the new ultra-low sulfur heating oil and biofuel mixtures being explored. Of course, the ability to make those claims honestly has come, in no small part, from the research and development conducted by Brookhaven National Laboratory through NORA funding. That's not to take away from what the equipment manufacturers develop and field, but this research can help lay the groundwork for their engineering efforts when developing new equipment. And, you have the ubiquitous challenge throughout the HVAC universe of assuring that the technicians out in the field are as competent as they can be. Where heating oil is concerned, NORA's certification programs will now be revitalized, providing the public an added layer of confidence in the industry. This also allows industry dealers an added layer of confidence themselves, when their reputation is on the line in an industry whose current and future success is so heavily dependent on quality, customer service. As I stated earlier, this development after such a hiatus is fairly extraordinary by Washington standards. But it shouldn't be a surprise by our industry association stan- dards. The Petroleum Marketers Association of America, New England Fuel Institute, numerous specific state associations—the effort has been continuous to make this happen and they each deserve a tremendous amount of credit. The staff members are certainly exceptional, but then again so are their industry dealer and marketer members. For everyone that put the long, grinding effort into making this happen, a hearty congratula- tions. l F o n Keith Reid 8 MARCH 2014 | FUEL OIL NEWS | www.fueloilnews.com