Soaring heating oil prices put struggling Maine families in a bind

Key points

• Heating oil in Maine has jumped from $3.34 to $5.97 per gallon in a year.
• The Olivers of Freeport got 100 free gallons but still cannot afford winter.
• Wood banks like Freeport's face extremely high demand and may run out mid-winter.

In Freeport, Maine, Chris and Cheryl Oliver are making hard choices on roughly $60,000 a year. Cheryl Oliver told CBS News she asks herself, "Am I going to get food this week, or am I going to get gas this week?"

Heating oil in Maine has risen from $3.34 per gallon a year ago to $5.97 today, a jump of about 79%, as diesel and gas prices have climbed since the start of the Iran war. The Olivers qualified for 100 gallons of free heating oil through a local community center, worth about $700, but it still will not get them through the winter.

Demand for firewood

More than 4 million U.S. households use heating oil as their main fuel, and 82% of them are in the Northeast, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Tony DiMarco, co-founder of the Freeport Wood Bank, a food pantry for firewood, said demand is "extremely high" and donations keep it running.

DiMarco said people do not fully grasp the severity of the problem when heating oil costs twice as much as last year. The Freeport Wood Bank is one of about 17 wood banks in Maine. It can supply about 50 families with firewood, but DiMarco said it will run out by the middle of winter.

I just don't think people fully grasp the severity of the problem.

— Tony DiMarco

A lifeline for the Olivers

This week, DiMarco delivered two free cords of firewood to help the Olivers stretch their heating oil. Chris Oliver lost one of his legs to diabetes and later suffered a heart attack.

Chris Oliver said emotionally of DiMarco and the wood bank, "Tony and that place, they're unbelievable." He added, "I don't know without them if we'd have heat."