VAN BUREN, Maine. The video begins with a Maine radio host in a bright red jumpsuit walking through the snow to a stranger’s door and entertaining her with free fuel oil. “My name is Blake, we’re from Maine Energy Facts and we want to fill up your gas – we have a responsibility!” he said at another stop, as the woman hugged her child and thanked him heartily.
The “Fill Your Love” promotion, funded by a group of fuel oil companies, creates a pleasant atmosphere, but it directs viewers to a home heating advice site that is overwhelmingly negative, and sometimes even contains a misleading statement about electric heat pumps. . saying that they are “simply not suitable for a climate like ours”.
The message doesn’t seem to work. Miners use heat pumps – square machines that work like reversible air conditioners, combining heating and cooling systems in one unit. Crews have installed tens of thousands of heat pumps in a state where long, cold winters and high oil and gas prices have made people turn, prompting the fossil fuel industry to step up efforts to stop the trend.
According to internal documents, the National Oil Heat Research Alliance, a trade association representing fuel oil sellers, funded an anti-electrification campaign targeting New England homeowners and realtors. The Energy and Policy Institute, a renewable energy group, obtained the documents upon request for public records and shared them with The Washington Post.
The coalition’s propane partner, the Committee on Propane Education and Research, has released training materials instructing installers on how to discourage customers from switching to appliances.
“The Electrify Everything movement is moving forward with a vengeance in the northeast and other parts of the country,” Richard Carione, a consultant hired by the National Oil Heat Research Alliance, wrote in a trade journal last fall. “Our industry has a responsibility to educate and energize Mainers employees about the pitfalls of electrification,” he concluded, “The battle has just begun. Stay with us”.
Similar territorial wars are being played out across the country. As more cities ban gas connections in new buildings and some states urge residents to ditch their stoves, industry groups are pushing back with a slew of anti-electrification messages. Standing in the way are states like Maine that see climate and consumer benefits by encouraging residents to make a change.
Efficiency Maine, a territorial government agency, is offering rebates to cover a portion of the cost of heat pumps, and the federal government is offering up to $2,000 in new federal tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act.
The state agency has also developed a pilot program to test whether heat pumps can replace stoves in prefabricated and prefabricated houses. Marianna Casagranda is one of 10 registered freeport homeowners.
“Oh hell no,” Casagranda said recently when asked if she misses her propane stove. As part of the experiment, the agency promised residents that they could take back their fossil fuel burning systems if they didn’t like the results. So far, no homeowner wants to return, the agency said, and Casagranda said she was very pleased.
“It’s comfortable. It’s quiet. It’s a really good system,” said Casagranda, a mixed-media artist whose concern about climate change has grown with her heating bills. “I’m very happy that our state is so far-sighted and we should because we live in a beautiful part of the country that has fallen and we’re investing in keeping it that way.”
The ultimate test of the device’s durability came over the weekend, when arctic air masses over the northeastern United States sent temperatures below freezing in Freeport. “The house is excellent!” she said on Monday.
The Maine Energy Marketing Association, the statewide representative of the oil industry, is promoting a different message on MaineEnergyFacts.com.
The website, sponsored by Carrione Marketing, warns that most Maine homeowners cannot rely on heat pumps as their sole source of heating. Because the electricity that heat pumps run is still generated by burning natural gas, they are “no more environmentally friendly than a basement oven,” the report said.
“In general, heat pumps are not popular in climates like the Northeast,” the website says. The message is clear: Maine heat pumps can’t handle it.
Experts say that many of these claims are exaggerations, and the few legitimate issues the site raises can be resolved with proper setup and design. Heat pumps operate in cold weather. Although their efficiency drops in sub-zero temperatures, today’s models can provide warmth even in temperatures as low as -15 degrees. Maine officials are advising residents to consider using backup heating systems if they experience extended periods of cold weather that the equipment cannot handle.
Even taking into account the use of electricity generated by burning fossil fuels, the researchers found that switching to heat pumps can often reduce a building’s carbon footprint.
“It is a simple fact that in almost every electricity market in the US, and certainly in all electricity markets, efficient cold weather heat pumps save carbon compared to city gas (methane), fuel oil, or [LPG]. Northeast, Bruce. Harley, an experienced Vermont energy consultant, said in an email.
The Maine Energy Marketing Association has questioned the viability of heat pumps by proposing a tax on the region’s electricity grid. In 2021, grid operator ISO New England warned of rolling blackouts due to supply chain issues affecting natural gas. However, the chairman of the trade group blamed the country’s promotion of heat pumps for the situation.
“Our network cannot meet the needs right now,” Charles Summers said in a radio interview. Summers said he and his industry group leaders in New England sent a letter to their governor, “asking the states to push hard for electrification, push for full heat pumps, and just hit the brakes for a few minutes.” ”
Last year, the trade group began calling for Maine political candidates to sign a pledge to vote against any measure that limits residents’ ability to choose home energy. While Maine won’t ban oil or gas connections anytime soon, dozens of state lawmakers, including Gov. Janet Mills (D), have signed on.
In interviews and emails, officials associated with the fuel oil and propane groups have sought to distance themselves from efforts to combat electrification. Michael Devine, president of the National Oil Heat Research Consortium, said his group played no role in developing the statewide affiliate’s messages. Because it is a federally registered trade association, the fees it collects must be used for research, education, and consumer education.
“We can pay the bills for these consultants, but we don’t hire them,” Devine said, adding that national groups have autonomy over their individual activities.
Summers, president of the Maine trade group, stated that his claims about heat pumps are correct and that “popularity is irrelevant to judging a heat pump is ideal.” The education center offers well-attended heat pump installation courses.
“We want consumers to have a choice,” he said by phone. “We asked politicians not to rule out liquid fuels.”
Maine remains heavily reliant on fuel oil, despite state and federal efforts to phase out fuel from the state. Its housing stock is one of the oldest in the country, and many residents cannot afford to switch to cleaner heat sources.
But the share of the oil market is falling. According to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, in the winter of 2010, 74 percent of households in the state relied on oil for heating, but that number has dropped to 60 percent by 2021.
Today, Maine’s northernmost county, Aroostook, has the highest concentration of heat pumps installed per capita under the Maine Efficiency Rebate program. Bordering Canada on three sides, this sprawling region of pine forests and potato farms has endured some really cold frosts, including a record low of -37°C in January 2009 in the Caribou.
Despite the freezing cold, driving down US 1 shows a gentle shift that has a major impact on climate change. Miners who have been using oil and propane to heat their homes, restaurants, libraries and churches for decades are turning to a different method of heating.
Aroostook heat pump installer Keith Ouellette said demand for heat pumps “just exploded”. “When people call me, they don’t say, ‘Sell me.’ They sold. They ask: “When can I come? ‘”
The conventional wisdom is that heat pumps work best as a supplement to oil or propane in very cold climates, Ouellett said. “Most people use it for their main heating system,” he said.
“If they didn’t really work in the cold, you would think that people would stop buying these things, but that’s not the case,” said Michael Stoddard, chief executive of Efficiency Maine.
In a state with fewer than 600,000 housing units, the agency provided rebates on 116,000 heat pumps, surpassing its original goal of helping residents install 100,000 units by 2025. While Stoddard said some were skeptical of the agency’s initial efforts to attract installers and develop the market, there is now no doubt that heat pumps can operate in colder climates, and his agency is experimenting with new uses.
At the end of January, the highest temperature was 23 degrees in Van Buren, a city of about 2,000 people on the US-Canada border. But, seated at his kitchen table, Paul Nadeau, dressed in a short-sleeved polo shirt, was flipping through a spreadsheet showing that he had saved thousands of dollars by heating his home with two heat pumps.
Nadeau grew up in a wood-fired home and remembers the luxury of switching to oil heating without chopping wood or lifting weights. Like many people in northern Maine who have heat pumps, he kept his oil stove as a backup. But rarely used. Last weekend, when the temperature in Van Buren dropped below minus 20 degrees and the wind chilled to minus 50 degrees, Nadeau said he turned on the stove for the first time this winter. His meticulous record keeping shows that he has not delivered oil since the fall of 2021.
“I’m using more electricity, that’s for sure,” Nadeau said. “But it’s certainly a lot cheaper than burning oil.”
Across the street from Nadeau’s house, Keith Perrault, vice president of fuel oil transportation, deals with the aftermath of these decisions.
Tulsa Inc., the 52-year-old company founded by Perrault’s parents, is facing a 5-10% drop in revenue as more customers rely on heat pumps as their primary source of heat, he said. Eligible low-income Maine households get free access to heat pump water heaters, which also reduces their income.
While home delivery of fuel oil currently makes up the bulk of his business, Perrault said he expects the business to continue to decline. However, he believes businesses will survive this shift. Other markets may emerge, he said, adding that demand for oil in the High North will not disappear anytime soon.
The game has another power. Rising temperatures from burning fossil fuels are shortening winters and scorching summers in New England, driving demand for air conditioners. Heat pumps meet needs that did not exist before.
Even Perrault has one at home and several at work, but he says he uses them almost exclusively for air conditioning. “I mean, I’m an oilman,” he said.