AUGUSTA, Maine - Heating oil prices in Maine have hit their lowest levels in a decade. According to the Governor's Energy Office, the average statewide cash price for heating oil fell another 5 cents from a week ago, to $1.92 a gallon.
Energy Office Senior Planner Lisa Smith says Maine hasn't seen prices this low since the fall and winter of 2004 and 2005. Smith suggests that Mainers invest the savings in energy efficiency measures, "so that your fuel use over time will stay lower. Oil prices are pretty volatile, so they could go back up as quickly as they've tumbled."
Smith says tumbling heating oil prices are the result of lower crude oil prices, as well as the warmer weather Maine has been experiencing. In Houlton, for example, the number of Heating Degrees Days - a measure of how much fuel it takes to maintain a certain temperature in a building - have fallen 10 percent so far this year compared to last year, Smith says.
