www.fueloilnews.com | FUEL OIL NEWS | JUNE 2016 15
ending it in Eastport Maine where there
happened to be an export opportunity…
Was that coincidental?
I think the offshoot of being able to tap
the main for residential conversion was
part of the general plan, though not neces-
sarily spoken about a lot. But I think that
was more apparent when people saw natu-
ral gas as the least expensive alternative for
home heating, when truly it is not now.
I would think that when these [expan-
sion plans] were first hatched, crude oil
was around $100 a barrel. So given the
price decline of crude—and this winter
heating oil and natural gas are close to
being on par on a BTU basis—the eco-
nomics of that alone ultimately made
these projects questionable.
FON: The Northeast tends to have a
strong environmental focus in many
ways comparable to what you see in
California. Although natural gas is
marketed as a "clean" fuel it is still a
fossil fuel to many activist environmental
groups. How has this played out with
pipeline expansion?
Trunzo: Throughout these pipeline
expansion projects we forged an inter-
esting relationship, and a nice one, with
the Conservation Law Foundation.
They've been opposing the natural gas
pipeline expansions, though for differ-
ent reasons than us. We look at it from
the standpoint of a market economy and
our industry being able to provide what
is needed, and they and other environ-
mental groups are looking at it more
from an anti-fossil fuel position.
But one of the interesting aspects is
that as we speak about biodiesel and the
increased use of that as a blending agent
into heating oil—making it cleaner,
greener and more renewable—we found
that we have some reasonable allies in the
environmental community. There are
homes that may never have an ability to
switch from oil to some other fuel. The
ability to make that fuel cleaner and to pro-
vide better greenhouse gas emissions across
the spectrum is a hallmark moment.
We do have one of the cleanest heat-
ing fuels on the horizon for homeowners
and even commercial use. If you look
at New York City where they currently
have a 2% requirement, and they are in
the midst of considering a bill to move
that up to 5% this coming winter and up
to 20% over the next 15 years or so, New
York City has heating oil as the cleanest
fuel for home heating in the entire city.
Even at low percentage blends heating oil
can more than match anything out there.
FON: The Senate bill is fairly large and
comprehensive. What are the details of
the pipeline expansion component?
Trunzo: It is something that NEFI is