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In support of Senator Levin's bill, the Close
the Enron Loophole act, MOC has placed
half page print ads in daily papers this week
in Springfield, Worcester, Quincy,
Framingham, Cape Cod and Salem. The ad
calls for consumers to call Congress and
urge passage of the legislation. MOC is also
on
www.closetheenronloophole.com\groupsinsu
pport.html. In support of the newspaper ad,
MOC has also prepared bill stuffers for
dealers to send to their customers urging
passage of the bill. They will be mailed by
week's end. MOC is supplying 250 per
dealer and will be mailing out a total of
50,000 bill stuffers.
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MOC held a very productive meeting last
week with state fuel assistance (LIHEAP)
officials. Due to the volatility in the heating oil
market, the state has implemented daily
pricing versus weekly pricing to set the
Margin-Over-Rack. This will continue until
further notice. In addition, the state
legislature is poised to approve $15 million in
state funds to help the fuel assistance
program. MOC helped lobby for the funds
and asked that community service agencies
do their best to speed payments to dealers
for LIHEAP deliveries.
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The state legislation that MOC supports to
assess a ½ cent on every gallon of heating
oil to upgrade older, inefficient systems
appears dead for this year. The House
version of a sweeping energy reform bill, the
one that is most likely to pass on Beacon
Hill, was announced last week and it did not
contain the heating oil System Betterment
Charge (SBC) language. House Speaker Sal
DiMasi and Governor Patrick expressed
concern to MOC that any tax on heating oil at
this time would not be prudent.
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Governor Patrick also announced a bill last
week that would mandate a 2% blend of
biofuel in heating oil by 2010 and 5% by
2013. MOC told Patrick's energy secretary
Ian Bowles and undersecretary Ann Berwick
two months ago that we're concerned about
mandates given the need for further
infrastructure improvements for bioheat
accessibility to all dealers. This bill is far
from a done deal and MOC will ensure the
industry has input in any measure that
moves ahead.
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Steve Holliday, the new head of National
Grid/KeySpan told the Boston Globe this
week that the utility's stated goal is to
capture 90% of the home heating market in
Grid's territories. Boston Globe reporter
Bruce Mohl interviewed Holliday as well
MOC's Michael Ferrante and MOC Board
member Jim Horan (Horan Oil). Kudos to
Jim for being quoted regarding how gas
emissions are hurting the environment.
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MOC would like to welcome two new
members to the Council, Stadium Oil
Heat, Inc. out of Peabody and HL
Fuel Co., Inc. out of West Lebanon,
New York.
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email:
zahra@massoilheat.org
phone:
781-237-0730
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