The Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve exists for emergencies, and it has been tapped twice in twenty-six years. This winter the administration is opening it for a different reason: the price of diesel, and the price of staying warm.
The Department of Energy announced on Wednesday that it will offer loans of up to 315,000 barrels of heating oil — nearly a third of the one-million-barrel Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve — to suppliers in a bid to bring down record fuel prices before winter, Reuters reported in an exclusive.
The oil will be offered from the reserve's three sites — South Portland, Maine; Boston, Massachusetts; and New Haven, Connecticut — with a maximum of 150,000 barrels per site and a minimum bid of 25,000 barrels. Bids are due Tuesday, October 27, and deliveries are to be completed by November 13. The arrangement is an exchange rather than a sale: recipients must return the same volume, plus a premium, before the 2027–28 heating season.
"The Trump Administration is committed to doing everything in our power to lower energy costs for the American people," said Energy Secretary Chris Wright. "Of course, this is a temporary measure to solve a temporary supply disruption." Wright paired the announcement with a renewed push for the Constitution Pipeline, pressing the governors of New York and the New England states to let it be built.
"Of course, this is a temporary measure to solve a temporary supply disruption." — Energy Secretary Chris Wright
The move follows a September 22 letter from Maine's senators, Republican Susan Collins and independent Angus King, urging the administration to act. About half of Maine households heat with oil, Collins noted, heating oil costs in the state are up more than 70 percent year over year, and the release amounts to roughly a 13 percent increase in New England's supply. Diesel prices have set records above $6.50 a gallon, with AAA's national average around $6.32 against last month's record $6.52, and Maine heating oil hit a record $6.02 a gallon in September.
The reserve itself was created in 2000 under President Bill Clinton and holds roughly ten days of regional supply. It has been tapped only twice in its history — most recently after Hurricane Sandy in 2012 — and never before for the purpose of lowering prices. Not everyone is convinced it will matter: veteran analyst Tom Kloza called the loan "puzzling and probably inconsequential," while Maine's Democratic governor, Janet Mills, welcomed it.
The timing is not incidental to the politics: Collins faces a difficult re-election fight in Maine, and New Hampshire's open Senate seat — where Chris Pappas and John Sununu are running — sits in the same oil-heated region. The barrels arrive by November 13; voters render their verdict on November 3.