Let’s say you have resolved to save money and help the environment by reducing the amount of propane you use for home heating. You lower the thermostat, put up weather stripping, cover your windows with plastic, and put insulating pads in outlets and switches. Now you can sit back and watch the savings build, right? Wrong. Because of the tortured economics of home heating, you may have just “saved” your way into being a low-volume user.

According to the Governor’s Energy Office website, the average cost of propane in southwestern Maine is currently $3.51 for users who are affluent enough or indulgent to consume at least 900 gallons in a heating season. Low-volume users pay a much higher price: $5.57 a gallon from one company servicing the same area. The affluent pay $3,159 for 900 gallons. The fixed-income widow or family in a small, weather-tight home pays that same amount for just 567 gallons.

I understand economy of scale, but we are not talking family-sized boxes of cornflakes. This is the ability of people to stay safely warm during Maine winters. This is not the way fuel for cars is handled. The Civic owner and the Expedition owner pay the same price per gallon at the pump. So, why not in our homes?

It is all well and good to encourage people to save on heating, but such encouragement has little meaning when consumers are rewarded for using more rather than less.

Robert Mongue
Springvale

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