For many heating fuel customers in Vermont, spring can’t come soon enough this year.
The price of fuel oil in the state has jumped by $2 per gallon since the U.S. and Israel launched a war with Iran on Feb. 28.
The price of kerosene, which many mobile home residents in the state rely on, is also up dramatically.
“We are definitely seeing people who are feeling very stressed about the prices, very stressed about topping off their fuel tanks and also because of the winter, running out of their fuel when normally, they probably, you know, wouldn't have been in the same situation,” said Alison Calderara, who leads Capstone Community Action in Barre.
"I think for vulnerable folks who are low-income and struggling to afford their fuel, their utilities, I think that this has been just a double whammy for them."Alison Calderara, Capstone Community Action
The nonprofit is one of several that administer Vermont’s crisis heating fuel assistance program, which helps people who are struggling to pay their energy bills and have a household income less than 200% of the federal poverty level.
March usually marks the end of Vermont’s heating season, but Calderara says this year, a lot more people have empty tanks to fill because it’s been such a cold winter.
“So I think for vulnerable folks who are low-income and struggling to afford their fuel, their utilities, I think that this has been just a double whammy for them,” she said.
The spike in fuel prices also creates a precarious situation for many of the state’s smaller fuel businesses, says Matt Cota, who represents fuel dealers in the Statehouse.
“The local fuel dealers in Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, that are at the end of that supply chain, they go into the market like anyone else, they just buy [fuel] in larger quantities, and that cost increase gets passed on to the customer,” he said.
Cota says high prices can mean more customers miss their payments, and fuel companies have to absorb that, which is easier for bigger regional companies to do.
“Whether you're selling heating oil or you're selling milk, you know, as smaller stores, mom and pop heating fuel dealers — higher costs make it more difficult to purchase that product and to absorb any delay in payment,” he said.
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Electricity prices are also rising in Vermont, though they tend to be much more price stable than fossil fuels. Spikes in heating fuel prices can be a boon for heat pump installations, something many fuel dealers now offer. But he says, it’s not enough to offset the impact of high fuel costs for smaller shops.
In addition to crisis heating fuel assistance, Vermont also provides heating assistance to low-income households below 185% of the federal poverty line as lump annual sums, and Richard Giddings, who administers that program for the Department for Children and Families, says in a cold year, that money doesn’t go as far.
Caldera and Giddings emphasized that crisis heating fuel assistance is still available for people who can’t fill their tanks.
And he encouraged people who are eligible for heating assistance to explore the Weatherization Assistance Program, which insulates homes for free. If you’re eligible for one program, you’re eligible for the other.
