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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A EC Star Gas takes the AEC Message In House The American Energy Coalition Moves Closer To Its Ultimate Goal as A Grassroots Organization BY K E I T H RE ID F UEL OIL NEWS HAS BEEN FOLLOWING THE DEVELOPMENT OF the American Energy Coalition since it was conceived in 2008 by six retail dealers in the New York City marketing area. Reacting to very aggressive utility gas mar- keting campaigns and a growing spread between the cost of fuel oil and natural gas, the original six envisioned a broad based trade association that brought together all stakeholders "under one roof" to address the growing threat. When an oil heated home is lost to a natural gas conversion, many com- panies representing a wide variety of trades also lose a little bit; and cumulatively it takes a toll on the oil heat industry as a whole. Supported completely by voluntary contributions, beginning in 2009, the coalition has grown significantly over the last three years. Its governing body, the Executive Committee, has twelve members, all retail dealers, but more geographically diverse than the original six. In addition to New York, other Executive Committee members represent dealers in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. And its sub-committee structure illustrates well the concept of including all industry players. Sub-committee members include company affiliations from: oil wholesalers, equipment whole- salers, manufacturers, state oil heat associations, other trade associations, hedge fund firms, software developers and market- ers, along with a long and growing list of individuals who work within the industry. These individual contributors have visited the AEC web site (americanenergycoalition.org) to make an online credit card contribution. Some have learned about AEC thru AEC's weekly E-Alerts, trade journals, state oil heat associations, and trade associations like OESP. But one group of individual con- tributors learned about AEC thru their employer, a leading well known retailer headquartered in Stamford, Conn.-- Star Gas Partners, LLC, parent company of Petro, Meenan and Champion Energy, and the nation's largest retail distributor of home heat- ing oil, has taken the movement in house. The company's COO and Executive Vice President Steve Goldman, recently sent its 12 MARCH 2012 | FUEL OIL NEWS | www.fueloilnews.com employees a letter asking for their support in the effort in the form of both becoming educated on the issues and passing that knowledge along to customers and also providing some personal financial support to the effort at whatever contribution level was manageable. Also included was a chart from AEC showing just how many people are impacted when a customer converts to gas. FON interviewed Goldman and Star Gas' President and CEO Dan Donovan for their feedback on the initiative. FON: Tell me a little bit more about what you're trying to accom- plish at Star Gas? Goldman: I think some people in the industry, from manage- ment and customer support staff to drivers and technicians, do not fully realize the impact that they can have as advocates by explaining the value of the heating oil industry and the important services we offer to our customers. Because AEC is something Star Gas is very passionate about, we really wanted to utilize the power of our resources and launched an internal marketing and aware- ness campaign to highlight its goals. The campaign was targeted to our staff, at every level, and asked them to actively promote AEC and oil industry by combating the enormous funds that are funneled into advertising natural gas. We've seen a nice ground- swell in a short period of time with a lot of people, at every level getting involved making very small donations to very charitable ones. Our employees really do believe this is a very important issue for us and our industry. They know that they provide a very important service to homeowners and that their jobs are not replaceable if lost due to aggressive natural gas marketing. Our team has made it abundantly clear that they want to be part of the solution and have reached into their own pockets to do whatever they can to help. Donovan: What we've tried to do with our internal AEC cam- paign is outlined very clearly on a slide that Steve included in his letter to our employees, which asked: "Who's in the house?" The letter detailed an example of "When Mrs. Jones converts to util-