Game-Changer: 20 New England oilheat dealers pledge to switch to Bioheat®

 

BOSTON ‘ The positive movement towards modernizing traditional home heating oil in the Northeast with cleaner, renewable biodiesel gained new momentum this week.  Twenty new oilheat dealers officially registered as Bioheat® dealers at the New England Bioheat Symposium on March 22 in Boston, which will give homeowners and other traditional oilheat users more access to cleaner burning Bioheat.

The day-long workshop was held at Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox.  The venue was a fitting choice.  Much like the oilheat industry itself, Fenway Park opened 100 years ago, and though generations have come and gone, it remains much the same.  But unlike Fenway Park, the oilheat industry has struggled to remain competitive.

‘Many oilheat dealers today are waking up to the fact that the time for progressive change is upon them,” said Paul Nazzaro, petroleum liaison to the National Biodiesel Board.  He spearheads the Bioheat education effort for the nonprofit organization.  ‘Bioheat is the first real opportunity for a game-changing shift in more than a century.  It is a more desirable product to consumers, offering enhanced energy security, benefits to health and the environment, and American jobs.”

Bioheat is made by combining oilheat with biodiesel, a renewable, advanced biofuel made from sustainable resources such as soybean oil, recycled grease and other fats and oils.  To be called Bioheat, the fuel must contain at least 2 percent biodiesel.

Bioheat is cost-competitive with oilheat, and does not require modifications to the oilheat system. 

Among the companies at the event was D.F. Richard Energy, an 80-year-old company whose founder began delivering kerosene to his neighbors during the Great Depression.  As one of the Northeast’s newest Bioheat marketers, this Dover, New Hampshire-based oilheat dealer proves that it is never too late to embrace change.   

‘As a company, we are willing to try to take oilheat to a different level, where there are many positives to our product.  Bioheat makes that possible,” said Rick Card, CEO of D.F. Richard.  ‘Our employees feel proud that their company is delivering the evolution of heating oil.”

Prior to the New England Bioheat Symposium, there were about 235 oilheat dealers registered as Bioheat dealers. 

‘The dealers who have joined us recognize Bioheat as the first opportunity they’ve had in a century, since the days of coal, to evolve their industry,” Nazzaro said.  ‘In them, I see our vision of Bioheat in every heating oil system as not just a dream, but a very attainable homerun.”

Attendees registered to win a free Bioheat truck wrap to assist in rebranding efforts.  Cleghorn Oil of Fitchburg, Mass. won the wrap, courtesy of Nebraska Soybean Board funding.   

In lieu of a registration fee, attendees donated $50 each to the Home Base Program, a partnership between the Red Sox Foundation and a local hospital, dedicated to improving the lives of injured veterans.

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For more on Bioheat, visit www.bioheatonline.com.  For more on biodiesel, please visit www.biodiesel.org.