Home heating oil prices on LI jump another 20% to a record $5.25 a gallon
Home heating oil prices on Long Island jumped another 20% last week with no clear end in sight — to a record $5.25 a gallon.
The increase, which represents a 60% spike from the same period in March 2021, reflects the soaring price for crude oil tied to war-related sanctions on Russia and prices that had already been hovering near records before the Ukraine war. Newsday had reported prices hit an 8-year high of $4.02 a gallon on Long Island for the week ending Jan. 17.
Around 40% of Long Island's 1 million households heat their homes with fuel oil.
Statewide, the average price for home heating oil reached $5.08 a gallon for the week ending March 7, according to the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority’s energy price tracking service.
NYSERDA tracks prices across the state weekly, and the 20% increase on Long Island represents a jump from the prior week.
The March 7 average price on Long Island was a record dating back to the start of oil-price tracking in May 1997. The prior record was $4.93 a gallon in July 2008.
As Newsday reported earlier this week, it’s not just fuel oil that’s increasing. PSEG’s power supply charge rose 6% from February to March, and around 20% from March of 2021, also tied chiefly to rising fuel prices.
Paul Hari, owner of Friendly Fuel in North Babylon, said he expects the fuel oil price to go higher in coming months. Customers, he said, are buying fuel oil in smaller amounts, a signal of the impact of pricing pressures. Prices on the website CODFuel.com showed the price for a gallon of heating oil on Long Island as high as $6.21 per gallon for customers who bought 49 gallons or less. Prices for 100-149 gallons were upward of $5.69 per gallon.
Richard Berkley, executive director of the Public Utility Law Project, an Albany-based energy watchdog, said the increases mean households will be forced to make the "dangerous false 'choice' between buying food, keeping the dwelling warm enough, buying medicine and health care and paying energy utility bills.
"On Long Island, you are the largest area in New York State that heats with fuel oil, and maybe in the country, so this will be especially harmful," Berkley said in an email message. "And what if this increase lasts" the entire heating season?
Noting increasing energy arrears across the state and Long Island, Bill Ferris of AARP added that "rising heating oil prices will put more households into financial trouble."
The news wasn't all bad. The cost for natural gas on Long Island is expected to fall for the month of February, in part because of lower commodity prices and lower anticipated usage, said National Grid spokeswoman Wendy Frigeria. Average bills for March could drop by 32%, or $92.94, for customers who use around 150 therms, she said, after prices had spiked in February.
Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.
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