Long Islanders are no strangers to the affordability crisis. But this winter will be especially difficult for hundreds of thousands of households — and for nonprofit human services organizations that care for our most vulnerable neighbors.
Home heating oil on Long Island recently reached an average of $6.24 a gallon—62% higher than the $3.84 families were paying just one year ago. A single 100-gallon delivery now costs $624, roughly $240 more than last year.
Think about what that means for a household budget—and then multiply it across more than 65 residential and program locations.
At Brightway, we support over 1,600 children and adults who have autism and other developmental disabilities across Nassau and Suffolk counties. Heating our residential program facilities isn’t optional; round-the-clock warmth is a health, safety, and therapeutic requirement for the individuals we support. Unlike commercial enterprises, nonprofit providers cannot simply raise prices or pass overhead costs onto consumers.
Meanwhile, roughly 600,000 Long Islanders who heat with natural gas will experience something very different. As recently as September, National Grid’s gas supply price fell to 47.67 cents per therm, its lowest level of the year. Gas is also cleaner: Federal data show that burning heating oil produces approximately 163 pounds of CO2 per million BTU, compared with about 117 pounds for natural gas.
As heating oil is increasingly unaffordable, we should be making it easier to move to less expensive and cleaner alternatives. Instead, government policy has added financial hurdles.
Recent federal policy changes eliminated tax benefits for residential customers while New York eliminated the “100-foot rule” which helped properties near existing gas infrastructure avoid upfront connection costs. An oil-to-gas conversion that once cost $12,000 to $14,000 with the 100-foot rule can now rise to $23,000 to $25,000; meanwhile a whole-home central heat-pump installation can cost approximately $26,000.
Gov. Kathy Hochul has embraced an all-of-the-above energy strategy centered on affordability and reliability. Long Island’s heating-oil crisis presents an opportunity to put that philosophy into practice. When Albany returns, policymakers must examine how the state can lower upfront conversion costs facing families and nonprofits, while preserving multiple practical options to do so.
The goal shouldn’t be to steer every property toward one single technology; it should be to give Long Islanders affordable choices. Because when a family — or a nonprofit care provider — opens a $600-plus heating bill, they aren’t thinking about ideology. They’re thinking about affordability and keeping people warm, safe, and moving All Ways Forward.
Op-Ed: With heating oil prices rising, families need solutions - Long Island Press