As heating oil prices climbed this fall, Rick Parkhurst radiated satisfaction. His fuel costs were behind him, his fuel stored.
He’s not worried about keeping warm this winter. It’s next winter he’s sweating. Will he still be able to find his coal?
Parkhurst’s supplier, Webber Energy Fuels’ Pittsfield division, Staples Oil, discontinued the sale of coal Sept. 1. The move has left a noticeable coal void in the central Maine area, a trend seen in other parts of the state as well.
Staples Oil, and before it Pittsfield Coal and Oil, had a history of making long-distance deliveries of varying sizes to accommodate a small but loyal group of customers.
“I can’t be the last person in Maine burning coal,” Parkhurst said, echoing the sentiment of other fans of the solid, black fuel who fear the oil companies are trying to drown out the competition.
Although the use of coal as a home heating fuel is not a major part of the Maine economy, it is still a preferred fuel for more than 500 homeowners and businesses in Maine, according to suppliers. There are people who depend on and believe in its use as an alternative to foreign oil and the unpredictable politics that affect its price and supply. To other loyal customers, coal offers more convenience and dependability than labor-intensive woodpiles.
Coal prices have remained consistent for the past five years, according to Kevin Lescavage, sales representative for Reading Anthracite Coal in Pottsville, Pa., one of the major suppliers to Maine.
Finding local coal suppliers and agreeable delivery charges is the obstacle coal customers find themselves facing. There are no coal suppliers between Waterville in Kennebec County and Easton in Aroostook County. The number of coal suppliers in the state has been cut in half over the last eight years. Of about 10 left, all but one are located west of the Penobscot River.
Maine’s coal has to be imported from one of 25 coal-producing states. Anthracite, or hard coal, is used in home heating. Pennsylvania is the largest anthracite-producing state at nearly 4 million tons a year.
Use of coal for home heating has declined since the 1960s in Maine and the country, with the exception of slight increases in the early 1980s, according to the State Planning Office. Reading Anthracite shipped more than 10,000 tons to Maine annually in the late 1980s. That figure dropped below 2,000 tons in the last three years.
Until recently, wood was more often the alternative for Maine people when oil prices climbed and supplies were low. But electric heat makes up a larger share than wood of the energy pie in the 1990s. Oil still makes up 50 percent of the market for residential consumption, according to the State Planning Office.
Webber Energy’s decision to curtail its coal sales was strictly business, according to Chris Smart, senior vice president of petroleum. He said the company’s coal sales had deteriorated year after year.
“Most people had already converted to oil,” he said. “It [coal sales] reached a point that it wasn’t feasible to continue with the investment.”
Since Webber discontinued its coal sales, 10 to 20 percent of former coal customers have converted to oil, Smart said. Smart was unable to cite specific numbers, but believed Webber’s coal customers declined to 250 or less. He compared that to 350,000 oil customers in Maine at an average of 900 to 1,000 gallons per household.
Parkhurst was especially bitter that Webber bought a longtime coal supply company, ultimately eliminating it and abandoning its customers. Parkhurst charged that Webber may be trying to squeeze out coal customers, citing the company’s purchase and elimination of another coal supplier in Lewiston.
“It’s cheaper for me to heat with coal,” said Parkhurst. “They’re in the business and they’re pushing [petroleum products]. What other energy sources are there except chop wood or plug into CMP [Central Maine Power], and that’s not practical.”
Lescavage said that Webber bought the former P&T Coal Co. in Lewiston and closed it. He saw a similar buyout in Vermont where Irving Oil bought out a longtime coal supplier and closed it. Every ton of coal that is eliminated as a fuel source is equal to 200 gallons of fuel oil, he said.
“If they [Webber] have 150 to 200 accounts, I find it hard to believe they could not make a go of it,” Lescavage said, citing coal’s favorable profit margin.
“We sold 16,000 tons of coal in Maine during the last energy crunch. When the price of oil drops, people switch. With the price expected to reach $1.30 a gallon, people are looking for alternatives. Coal is a viable fuel,” said Lescavage.
Smart said Webber is not in the business of eliminating alternative fuel sources or forcing people into using the company’s oil and propane.
“Not unless they choose or desire. We’re not trying to force one product over another,” he said.
Smart confirmed Webber Energy owned a coal supply company in the Lewiston area but discontinued coal sales there about four years ago. He emphasized that move also was a business decision and not a move to eliminate a competing fuel. Webber Energy has a sales operation in Auburn for fuel oil.
Webber is still evaluating the possibility of offering bulk coal orders to customers during the summer months, according to Smart.
Whether coal can hang on in Maine is open to debate, according to the few dealers left in the state. It’s not produced here and its use is still associated with antiquated stereotypes.
“It’s work-related. It’s a vanishing fuel. Things have changed and people don’t want to do the work,” said Gary Hayward of Hayward Coal in Alna.
Hayward has sold coal and coal stoves for seven years from a renovated 200-year-old Cape Cod-style home in Alna that his family has occupied since the 1700s. Selling coal as a home-based business makes it viable, he said.
Coal is less expensive to burn than other fuels, Hayward said, but it’s promoted and sold the least. Stove shops don’t promote coal as an alternative, he pointed out.
“They’re pushing gas and pellets. The pellets are more expensive,” said Hayward. “They’re also selling a maintenance plan … coal stoves are virtually maintenance-free.”
Hayward sells coal stoves priced between $800 and $1,000. The Black Stove Shop in Waterville priced one of its pellet stoves at $1,900, that’s without the required venting system. The shop reported wood stoves can start as low as $499 and range up to $3,500 depending on a customer’s needs.
A spokesman at Consumers Fuel Co. in Belfast said one of the reasons more people don’t use coal is they simply don’t know how. Burning coal is a dying art, he said. As experienced and loyal coal customers get older, there are fewer and fewer people who know how.
“There is a knack to it based on the unit you have,” said Hayward. “When we first bought the company, we took on coal stove sales. It took us about three days to get the hang of it. It’s basically easy, once you know how.”
The trick is — leave it alone, he said. People who are converting from burning wood to coal have trouble not tending their fires every few hours. It’s not necessary with coal.
“I can maintain a steady temperature for more than 12 hours with my stove,” Hayward said. “In the fall, I only tend it [add more coal] once a day. It’s basically a 5-gallon pail.”
Depending on the outside temperature, winter maintenance can increase to twice a day. Oxygen for the fire is controlled by a thermostat on modern coal stoves and furnaces. Hayward also sells firewood, but prefers the convenience and the even, long-term heat coal offers.
Burning coal is not like what many people may remember from their childhood, said Hayward.
“It’s not dirt-free, but it’s cleaner than wood from my own perspective,” Hayward said.
Living on the premises of his coal business, it’s something he looks at every day. The stereotype of dirt people equate with coal yards is not in evidence. There are no piles of coal or rundown buildings. His coal supply and scales are kept undercover. The coal is screened and weighed before a delivery so customers get the benefit of a full load. Coal is bagged on the premises amd sold in 50-pound bags to wholesale accounts or delivered in bulk loads to individual homes.
Using his own home as an example, Hayward said he used to burn seven cords of wood in a season. That compares to 3 tons of coal he burns now at $170 a ton or $510 for the year. In the spring and fall, he uses about 60 gallons of oil as a backup system. If he were to use oil through the season, he said, it would amount to about 800 gallons, well in excess of $800 at current prices.
The biggest complaint about burning coal may be taking out the ashes, but it’s the same with burning wood. Once it’s routine, tending a coal stove or furnace takes about 15 minutes a day, he said. Three tons of coal takes up the same space as one cord of wood. Coal stoves can be fed manually or with a gravity-fed system from a bin. Others opt for an auger-fed system.
With an automated system, Parkhurst reduces the maintenance to his system to once a week. He is another loyal supporter of coal heat both for its convenience and price. He uses about 6 tons of coal in a heating season, spending about $1,100 to heat a two-story home in Pittsfield.
Both Parkhurst and Hayward said coal systems need to be cleaned once or twice a year including the chimney. However, chimneys don’t build up with creosote as they do with wood stoves.
Spring Brook Ice and Fuel in Waterville and Consumers in Belfast report they have picked up a few more coal customers since Webber abandoned the service. The problem then becomes one of delivery. Spring Brook will deliver anywhere in a 30-mile radius while Consumers extends 60 miles out of Belfast. Hayward in Alna, north of Wiscasset, sets a 50-mile radius, but includes a delivery charge. The Webber business out of Pittsfield often traveled much farther than any of its competitors.
The coal dealers contacted preferred not to specify the number of customers they serve. Hayward said he maintains a mailing list of 500 customers with about 80 percent of it coal-related. Lescavage said Reading Anthracite offered to notify Webber coal customers of plans to discontinue coal sales and provide the names of other Maine suppliers. Webber ultimately issued its own letter listing two alternate sources and citing the fuels it offers as well as service and installations.
Hayward cites anthracite coal as a low-sulfur fuel capable of meeting sulfur dioxide emission standards of the Clean Air Act. Anthracite sulfur emissions equal the emissions of No. 2 home heating oil, Lescavage said, and are lower than for some grades of fuel oil, particularly commercial grades.
Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection agrees coal is clean when compared to No. 6 fuel oil, a commercial grade. Kathy Neil, licensing engineer with the DEP, said there are a large number of commercial users of No. 6 oil in Maine. Switching to coal would actually reduce their sulfur emissions. The DEP requires new commerical heating sources being created to burn a fuel with lower sulfur content than that of No. 6 oil, she said.
Sensitive to environmental interests and criticisms, Reading Anthracite also follows a rigid quality control system with testing to determine size and ash content. Mining areas are backfilled, landscaped and reforested, also creating and protecting wetlands for wildlife. Hayward visited some of the sites to see the work and restoration for himself.
There are three sizes of coal commonly stocked and used for heating in Maine, Hayward said: A stove or furnace coal he described as about the size of a baked potato; the remaining two sizes reflect their namesakes in size, nut (or chestnut) and pea coal. Nut coal is used more commercially and pea coal is used in a lot of coal stoves and some boilers. Two other sizes of coal available from Reading Anthracite include buckwheat, slightly smaller than a quarter, and barley, resembling a pile of black grass seed.
Hayward coordinates his sales with other coal suppliers in Portland and Easton (east of Presque Isle).
“We have to work together to promote [coal],” he said. “Unlike the oil companies, we talk to each other. Word of mouth and loyal customers keep us going.”
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