Energy Communications Council Hires Upstate New York Firm for Heating Oil Promotion

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 13, 2009 ‘ The Energy Communications Council (ECC), a coalition of state heating oil associations in seven Northeast states, has hired Syracuse, N.Y.-based Strategic Communications, LLC, to carry out its public relations and news media outreach initiatives.

The move by the ECC is the second phase of an effort begun two years ago to increase consumer awareness of the use, comfort, reliability, cleanliness, efficiency, safety, and convenience of heating oil by working with the news media and other energy stakeholders.

‘Heating oil is a low-cost, efficient fuel for approximately 30 million Americans,” said John Huber, president of the National Oil Research Alliance (NORA), which provides state funding for the regional public relations effort. ‘The Energy Communications Council helps promote NORA’s message of heating oil value to Northeast consumers, and the group serves as a key resource of industry information for the news media.”

Strategic Communications, LLC, provides expertise in organizational change and transition, integrating public relations, crisis communications, government relations, and strategic planning. It serves clients from a broad variety of industries throughout the United States in the energy, health care, financial services, manufacturing, and education areas, with a strong focus on energy.

The ECC represents the National Oil Research Alliance, the New England Fuel Institute, and heating oil associations in the Delaware Valley, New Jersey, New York, Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Virginia.