---

Even though oil prices for a time dropped dramatically - below $130 a barrel as we write this - the high cost of oil is, if you'll pardon the cliche, the 800 pound gorilla in the room. Hard to ignore. Cutbacks in Nigeria halted that decline, anyway. So we're left to cope with what? Bewildered customers who don't know where to turn. That's why, if we want to keep our customers, it's up to the Oilheating industry to provide guidance, reassurance and practical solutions.

What to do? Do your customers blame you for the high prices? Probably no more than they blame the gas station owner - but underlying their discomfort is a growing uneasiness with oil, fueled (if you'll pardon the pun) by the gas utilities.

We don't know if irreparable damage is being done, but we do know that the Oilheating industry cannot allow this often mendacious onslaught of hyperbolic vitriol by the utilities, focused specifically on oil, to continue without redress. Put another way, we've got to do something to end or counter their lies and exaggerations.

One group, the American Energy Coalition, an association made up of independent oil dealers, as well as a number of state and regional associations, equipment manufacturers and other interested parties, was recently formed to do just that.

Emerging from the Metropolitan Energy Council, which often took on the gas utilities in its advertising, the AEC is now coalescing, which means raising funds is a priority. That's the problem. With an industry besieged by high prices (no matter what the cause), it's tough to ask for money. Yet that's when help is needed most.

We know that problem well. Those of us in the magazine business know that when times are tough, that's the time to advertise more, yet at such times, people tend to pull back.

While NORA is our first line of defense, it is prohibited by law from challenging competing fuels (nor can it provide funds for others to do so). That's where independent entities come in.

If you want to know more about the AEC, see page 30 in this issue. We don't know if that is a solution to customer anxieties or not, and it is something one can do now. But it's not the only thing.

For example, in Rich Rutigliano's piece on page 36 in this issue, he makes the point that communications strategies must change with the times. The worst thing we can do is leave our customers out in the cold - not for lack of heat, but for lack of information. If you want to keep your customers, the first step is to keep them in the loop.

And Paul Nazzaro, in his article (see page 22), points out that there may be no better time than the present to talk to your customers about BioHeat.

Finally, NORA's John Huber (page 8) has some observations and suggestions about meeting this price challenge.