All Mainers need heat in the winter with the reality that most are dependent on oil, propane or electricity, and the prices of all three have skyrocketed.

Mainers try to economize by turning down thermostats, but most of us need help. The governor and the state have been trying to support us, but even this is likely to be insufficient for many.

If we could find a cheaper source of oil and propane, we could also help ourselves. So I looked, recently, at the prices that I had paid for fuel. To my horror, I realized that I had failed in this quest.

When I looked more into this, I found that many other Mainers were in my boat – buying fuels at higher than market prices. Let me explain my recent experience and what can be very simply done to help all Mainers.

I use both oil and propane for heat. I signed up with the company that provided oil and propane to my home’s previous owner. I took the option of automatic delivery with the invoice to be charged to my credit card, as this afforded a discount. I never looked at my invoice for more than two years, dutifully paying the credit card bill without a question. I naively assumed that the dealer would charge the going price on the day of delivery – give or take a few cents per gallon – or roughly the average price in my region.

My last fuel delivery was Dec. 13. My daughter, who has delivery from another company, had fuel delivered just two days earlier. As this was her first delivery, she asked me if the price she was paying, $4.09, was too high. I checked market prices around Portland. Her price looked OK.

I then I looked at my invoice and, to my astonishment, I had been charged $5.59. I asked my son, who also lives nearby, what he had paid. His supplier was charging $3.73 on the day that I had received my delivery. I was charged between 40% and 50% above what my children who lived within 5 miles of my home were paying for fuel.

We would assume that prices could vary a few cents from one supplier to another, but a difference of $1.50 a gallon or $1.86 a gallon? So I went online to check if others had had a similar experience – some claimed that they had paid as much as double the average.

How can this price problem be simply addressed and largely eliminated for all Mainers? Is there a way to reduce energy bills at a time when most of us need help?

Here’s my suggestion.

Local papers in every region of Maine could publish weekly prices for oil and propane – the low, the average and the high price for all providers in that region. The information could be published in print and online. This information would put pressure on all providers of oil and propane to compete, lowering oil and propane prices.

It would be more difficult for oil and propane providers to stealthily take advantage of consumers, possibly saving hundreds, if not thousands of dollars for some consumers each year. If this simple initiative could become operationally widespread and practiced, I believe it could become as important for many consumers as the supportive programs adopted by the state of Maine to help consumers heat their homes.

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