“Clarke Canfield” - Heating oil use falls as prices, irritation rise
March 11, 2011 By CLARKE CANFIELD, Associated Press
March 11, 2011
http://www.salon.com/wires/us/2011/03/11/D9LT61UG0_us_hating_heating_oil/index.html
Home heating oil prices have been rising fast, but heating oil consumption has been going the other way in recent years.
Maine is more reliant than any other state on oil for heat. Heating oil prices have risen 32 percent there in the past four months.
But according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, residential heating oil sales in Maine plummeted 35 percent from 2004 to 2009. Nationwide sales fell 26 percent.
The cost has led people to turn down the heat, make their homes more energy-efficient, supplement with other methods or simply switch to other fuels.
Jamie Py of the Maine Energy Marketers Association notes that many people have simply decided to wean themselves off oil because they're fed up with the wild swings of the market.