It’s halfway through September, but still the sun is blazing hot as Mike Lagadas bundles wood at Family Firewood in Sebago.

Though winter is months away, a rise in demand for firewood has kept Lagadas and owner Mark Ware working from sunrise to sunset. Fifty to 70 calls a day go unanswered as they try to catch up to the demand, delivering an average of eight cords a day to customers who made their orders during the spring and summer.

“It stays steady more than we can get done,” Lagadas said. “But we try to fulfill the customers’ needs and try to maintain a decent price.”

With heating oil up 30 cents a gallon just since last month – an average of 94 cents more than last year – the price of firewood has followed suit, from $150 since the beginning of the summer to now $200 a cord or higher.

“(The increase) is largely due to logging and fuel costs for equipment,” Lagadas said.

Regardless, Family Firewood is trying to keep their price steady at $170 a cord for now.

“We wish we didn’t have to raise prices,” Lagadas said. “We do this to live, not to become rich.”

A rise in the price of heating oil and fuel costs has many Mainers wondering how they are going to afford to stay warm through the winter. Many will be stoking up the old woodstove for the first time in years or going out to buy one.

“The overall interest in wood is coming back because of the price of fuel,” said Tim Bushey, manager of Frost and Flame, a woodstove seller in North Windham.

One out of four customers tell him that they are looking for a stove to supplement their gas heat, but Bushey suspects more are wanting to heat their entire home using wood. Stoves range from $600 to over $2,000, Bushey said. Some large, some small; some fed by cut wood, others fueled by wood pellets.

“It’s a great way to space heat,” Bushey said, though, he added, some of the larger models can heat the entire house.

Though the price of firewood, and wood pellets, has risen, it is still estimated cheaper than oil, he said.

Why the rise in fuel costs

Though gas prices have eased back a few cents this week, the price of heating oil reached a record $2.54 a gallon, up 39 cents since August and 60 percent, or 94 cents higher than last year.

According to Jamie Py, president of the Maine Oil Dealers, heating oil rarely moved up a penny on a summer day up until three years ago, let alone the 40 to 80 cent hike seen lately. Since then, the market has become far more volatile due to a greater number of speculators and stock traders interested in buying oil futures, said Ply. If these traders see a change in the crude oil market coming, they begin buying or selling oil stock, which causes the price to fluctuate rapidly.

Though the Katrina disaster did put a “kink” in the complicated network of oil refineries, pipelines and suppliers, Py attributes much of the price hike to speculators putting too much “heat” on the market.

Now, weeks after the disaster, crude oil has dropped from close to $70 a barrel to $63 a barrel.

“Hopefully that trend will continue,” Py said. “It’s promising that the (Gulf Coast) refining is coming back on already. To the keep the existing infrastructure is critical.”

Py believes that the price should continue a downward trend, but it remains to be seen, he says, “whether we’re out of the woods yet.” Py also recommends that customers try to lock in a price with their heating oil company if they still can.

“You got to prepare and expect the worst,” Py said, “and be happily surprised in the end.”

Region prepares for a long winter

On Tuesday, local seniors filed into Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Windham to sign up for fuel assistance from People’s Regional Opportunity Program. The program provides many social services to southern Maine like general assistance (food, clothing, basic necessities) and fuel assistance. There has been an “onslaught” of people asking for help this year, said Maurice Geoffory, social programs manager for PROP, but seniors and mothers with infants are first priority.

“We’re doing everything we can do so people don’t go cold and hungry,” Geoffory said.

Geoffory, who handles PROP general assistance for much of the Lakes Region, meets with those seeking help “face to face” to assess whether they are eligible or not. The program unfortunately can only provide assistance to low-income individuals and familes, said Geoffory.

Since the spike in heating oil costs, Geoffory and other PROP social workers heard the same question over and over again from people seeking help: ‘If couldn’t afford last year’s prices, how am I going to afford this year’s?’

“There’s a lot of concern and unease and anxiety about the escalating cost of gasoline and oil,” said Grant Lee, executive director of PROP. “And I think that’s rightly so.”

Lee said there have been more people asking for fuel assistance this year than last year which he attributes to a “heightened awareness” of how oil costs will affect people’s budgets.

“This year is going to be particularly difficult,” Lee said. “It’s going to have an impact on everyone and, for the people who are struggling to get by, this is going to make it even more difficult for them to make ends meet.”

Lee is likewise concerned about those who may be above the income limit for assistance but still need help. He recommends that they take every precaution to conserve energy and “weatherize” their homes – clean furnaces to make them fuel efficient, insulate windows with plastic, etc.

Towns trying to conserve

Municipalities in the Lakes Region are already trying to conserve energy and fuel where they can, aware that this winter may break many town budgets.

“There’s no magic solution that’s going to make this go away,” said Windham Town Manager Tony Plante.

Plante has asked all town departments to “be more mindful” of fuel consumption and not to take unneeded trips. Windham was unable to lock in a price for heating oil, Plante said, which he hopes will go down. Windham will be $60,000 over budget if the heating oil and fuel prices don’t decrease, he said.

Raymond is looking at a whole list of conservation measures, said Town Manager Don Willard like locking thermostats, instating a “no idling” policy for town vehicles, shutting off air conditioners, shutting down heating zones in offices, etc. Raymond was able to lock in a price for heating oil, he said. Willard believes more people will be asking for general assistance this year, as well.

Casco, Standish, Naples and Sebago are all trying to conserve energy, but as Town Manager Derek Goodine puts it, “Do you have some miracle cure so fire trucks can run on water?”

The Attorney General is watching…closely

Since the rise in fuel prices, the Attorney General’s office has been watching the market to make sure that no oil or gasoline dealers are “gouging” their prices. The Attorney General looks for “unfair or deceptive practices” and violations of the anti-trust law, said Charles Dow, Special Assistant to the General. However, Dow notes, there is no law dictating how much fuel should or should not cost.

“We certainly recognize that heating oil may be a matter of life and death for many Mainers, so it’s taken very seriously,” Dow said. “But that’s not to say that it’s necessarily illegal.”

What is illegal, and what the attorney general looks out for, are heating oil companies and gas stations that don’t compete for business, but rather secretly agree on a price that gas or oil should be set.

“There is no price control,” Dow said. “We’ve instead selected a system a competition to drive the prices, but that system only works when competition actually exists.”

If oil companies or suppliers are charged with collaborating over prices, the attorney general’s office can order them to stop or fine penalties. The office has prosecuted in the past for oil companies who have faulted on their pre-buy agreements and wood sellers who sold “short cords” like two brothers from New Gloucester did last winter.

Coalition of states sue federal government over energy standards

The state of Maine, in conjunction with 15 other states and the city of New York, filed a suit last Thursday against the U.S. Department of Energy for “failing customers on energy standards.”

The coalition asserts that the Energy Department has violated federal law requiring it to adopt stronger energy-saving standards for appliances that use electricity, natural gas and oil such as furnaces, oil pumps and air conditioners. This law went into effect 20 years ago and gave a timeline by which the department would reach certain goals for energy efficiency. The department is six to 13 years behind schedule and has not adopted any appliance efficiency standards since January, 2001.

Assistant Attorney General Jerry Reid calls this a lawsuit that was “a long time in the making.” Reid said low energy standards are costing customers money and wasting resources.

“(The low energy standards) have resulted in a lot more energy being consumed,” Reid said. “And when more energy is consumed, the demand goes up as does the price.”

The states wrote to the Energy Department in 2001 demanding that they comply with the law and update standards as part of a “binding schedule” and told the Department if they did not, the states would pursue litigation. The Department has yet to respond to the letter.

Mike Lagadas bundles wood at Family Firewood in Sebago. Demand and price of firewood has gone up due to the recent spike in heating oil and fuel prices.