WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY:
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WHAT → happen → ?
If you don’t have any plans this weekend, the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute will be hosting their annual “Boo at the Zoo.”
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Institute → have → Zoo
It’s an after-hours Halloween event that will feature trick-or-treating stations, a pumpkin patch, and much more.
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that → ’ → stations
🎃🐼🐒
- 🛢️💲📈 Earlier today, Callie spoke with former regulator Jamie Van Nostrand about surging fuel oil prices and how the New England region in particular is feeling the squeeze.
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region → speak → squeeze
Keep reading to see what he suggested as short- and long-term solutions to the growing affordability crisis.
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he → keep → crisis
If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here.
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you → send → you
If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email, and we’ll add you to our list.
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we → sign → list
Democrat Sen. John Hickenlooper of Colorado spoke on a podcast this week about the Senate’s plans to take up permitting in November when lawmakers return from midterms.
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lawmakers → speak → midterms
“I think that it’s going to take a little bit of massaging, because there are some things in there that are going to be tough for some Democrats, and there’s some things in there that are going to be tough for some Republicans.
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that → think → Republicans
That’s the nature of democracy, right?” Hickenlooper said.
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Hickenlooper → ’ → democracy
“To get something that matters, both sides have to give a little.
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sides → get → little
So again, I’m not going to prejudge or try to estimate what the votes are going to look like, but I am willing to, and have already made plans to, have a lot of discussions about the bill, so we get a full chance to hear it
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we → go → it
,” he added.
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he → add → ?
NEW ENGLAND FEELS THE SQUEEZE FROM OIL:
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ENGLAND → feel → OIL
With snow already falling in northern Maine, homeowners and businesses in New England are preparing to turn on their heat and face record-high heating oil costs.
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homeowners → fall → costs
As we touched on earlier this week, fuel oil costs have surged across the country due to global oil market disruptions caused by a decline in oil flows in the Middle East and loss of refining capacity worldwide.
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costs → touch → capacity
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in its latest Consumer Price Index that fuel oil prices alone rose by 74.2% for the year ending in September.
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prices → report → September
Up north, those prices have jumped even higher.
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prices → jump → ?
In Maine alone, heating oil prices have risen by around 80% from last year, just below $6 per gallon.
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prices → rise → gallon
Typically, an oil-heated home can use between 500 and 700 gallons of oil each year.
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home → heat → oil
With those prices, families are going to be paying around or more than $4,000 to keep their homes warm this winter.
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families → go → homes
And in Maine, where around 50% of residents use fuel oil to keep their homes warm, people are going to be feeling “real hardships,” Jamie Van Nostrand, a former regulator in Massachusetts, told Callie today.
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Nostrand → use → Callie
Van Nostrand, policy director of the Future of Heat Initiative and former chair of the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities, warned that the high prices will stick throughout this winter, which could create dangerous conditions for families.
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which → warn → families
“It potentially gets to be unsafe because people might not adequately heat their home,” he said.
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he → get → home
Additionally, it may cause some homeowners to fall behind in paying their bills, forcing some to choose between things like going to the doctor or heating their home.
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homeowners → cause → home
“It’s just basic hardship,” he said.
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he → ’ → ?
The easiest way to address the surging prices locally, Van Nostrand said, is for state officials to offer assistance to homeowners struggling with their bills.
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officials → address → bills
Local municipalities have already seen a surge in applications for the assistance, with Aroostook County in Maine alone seeing 16% more this year than in 2025, according to the Bangor Daily News.
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County → see → News
Van Nostrand suggested that local governments can go further than that, taking a look at any money that hasn’t been spent and determining if it can be reallocated to subsidize fuel oil over the winter.
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it → suggest → winter
There might also be an opportunity for the federal government to take action, with agencies such as the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency issuing emergency orders allowing for additional refining.
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agencies → take → refining
Van Nostrand said higher oil prices present an opportunity for homeowners and businesses to take advantage of alternative heating resources, such as heat pumps.
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homeowners → say → pumps
“The solution to this is going to electric heat pumps, and that’s going to be the lowest cost path,” he said.
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he → go → pumps
“And it may be some cold weather states, if you’re already on fuel oil, you could keep that fuel oil as a backup.
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you → ’re → backup
As it gets below a certain temperature, you go off your electric heat pump and then rely on your fuel oil furnace.
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you → get → furnace
”
There is a cost barrier to heat pumps, with whole-home heating systems in cold climates costing around $15,000 to $25,000 to install, Van Nostrand estimates.
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Nostrand → be → 25,000
However, the Future of Heat initiative has said these systems can save more than $1,000 a year on heating bills, depending on electricity rates.
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systems → say → rates
Van Nostrand noted that as electricity prices increase, the cost of maintaining a heat pump will also rise.
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cost → note → pump
But, he insisted that those costs would not be as volatile as just using natural gas to heat your home, as the heat pump draws on a blend of electricity generation.
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pump → insist → generation
The Department of Energy is moving to expand transmission capacity in Virginia and West Virginia, using the Defense Production Act.
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Department → move → Act
The project, announced earlier today, aims to add roughly 290 megawatts of transmission capacity across Appalachian Power’s Virginia grid system, by deploying advanced reconductoring and Dynamic Line Rating technologies.
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project → announce → technologies
…and 36 more, not listed.
The Aporia
