Keith Reid

It’s said that competition brings out the best—in athletics, in business—in almost any endeavor you can think of. Fuel marketers face intense competition from other energy sources and other technologies, and that’s where the National Oilheat Research Alliance comes in. NORA has released its latest annual report, and it notes that since its authorization by Congress in 2000, it has ...

“The health and safety of New England’s 14 million residents and the vibrancy of its economy depend on a reliable power supply, and that requires fuel security—that is, a reliable supply of the various fuels used to generate the region’s electricity.” That’s from a report by ISO New England, operator of the region’s six-state power system. As fuel oil suppliers ...

The Oilheat Manufacturers Association, in the person of OMA Technical Director John E. Batey, came to the support of fuel oil dealers in Connecticut. Batey submitted extensive comments on what is called the “Comprehensive Energy Strategy” developed by the state’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. Batey lays out a case for biodiesel blended with ultra-low sulfur heating oil, and ...

As the heating oil industry charts a way forward, fending off natural gas competition on one side and now, we learn from John Huber, electrification on the other, the National Oilheat Research Alliance presses on, researching and developing oil-burning equipment and “greener” biofuel. “We [want to] move to high levels of biodiesel, with highly efficient equipment,” Huber says of the ...

Joe Wills is the president of SMO Energy in La Plata, Md. The company has approximately 30,000 accounts, and operates in southern Maryland, which makes its business somewhat different–compared to marketers in New England, that is. “We do have the challenges with natural gas coming in,” Wills says. “But really our primary challenge is coming from the electric heat pump. ...

The SSV Oliver Hazard Perry looks like an old timey ship, but was completed just this year. It has engines that run on biodiesel, fuel that was supplied by Newport Biodiesel. (Story, pg. 14 September.) T.H. Malloy & Sons, a fuel marketer in Cumberland, R.I., that delivered the biodiesel to the ship for its maiden voyage, is a longtime marketer ...

Readers, Martha Leshine wants to hear from you. Especially if you are one of the approximately 1,500 people who attended NEFI Expo, June 14-15 at the DCU Center in Worcester, Mass. The 2017 Expo was the first that Leshine presided over since being named acting president and CEO earlier this year. She noted that exhibiting companies numbered 189 and that ...

First, we take note of late-breaking news: Congress adjourned before the holidays without renewing a number of expiring tax breaks, including a $1 per gallon biodiesel blenders’ tax credit set to expire on Dec. 31. The New England Fuel Institute, noting this development in a “Legislative Update” said it will continue to press for a retroactive extension of the biodiesel ...

After the National Oilheat Research Alliance held a Technical Workshop in Newport, R.I., that featured speakers from the U.S. and overseas fuel oil industries, John Huber, NORA’s president, said, “We’re very happy with how it went. People were really enthusiastic, and we had pretty good representation across the spectrum of the industry.” Huber added, “It’s always interesting and entertaining to ...

It has been a pleasure to be the editor of Fuel Oil News since 2007. It has been an honor to do my small part in maintaining a publication that has been successfully serving the heating oil and, more broadly, the distributed fuel industry since 1935. I say “small part” because the magazine and those that came before me have ...