Dennis Traina, VP Tragar Oil

AMANDA: (0:00:00) Ok, can you tell me a little bit about the company?

DENNIS: (0:01:28) Sure. My name is Dennis Traina and I’m the Vice President of Tragar Oil. I’m the third generation. We’ve been here for fifty years in Wantagh. We got involved with the green Levittown project, they actually seeked us out because we are a green energy company. What I mean by that is, from the paper that we use inside the office, to the energy star boilers we install, to the solar panels to the soybean blended heating oil that we deliver, I sort of think we are pioneers in bringing green energy to Long Island.

AMANDA: (0:37:26) You said the company’s been in business for over fifty years, has it always been green?

DENNIS: (0:43:08) No. Actually it’s an interesting story. It came from my sister who’s out in San Francisco and she pretty much sparked the green revolution over in San Francisco. And said you really have to pay attention to this and I did. And it went with my lifestyle; I’ve always been sort of living a green lifestyle. So six years ago it was.

AMANDA: (1:06:20) So how many homes, have recently, since the green initiatives from Suozzi, have been using your products?

DENNIS: (1:15:12) The project began in November. Since November, we’re responsible for two major initiatives. One is to replace as much heating equipment as possible, with energy star, high efficiency equipment. And I will mention that by replacing a heating system, the homeowner increases their efficiency of their heating system by 30 %. The average home uses about 800 gallons so they save 200 gallons of oil a year, by replacing their equipment. 200 gallons at $4 a gallon which is the current going rate, they’re saving approximately $800 a year just by installing the equipment. $800 times maybe 6 years, it pays for it self. It’s one of the greatest returns on your investment that homeowners can do to make their home a more efficient home.

AMANDA: (2:14:00) Now how much does it cost upfront? Is it more expensive upfront than a regular heating system?

DENNIS: (2:19:03) No. A heating system has pretty much has always been about the same, about $4500. There’s aggressive financing with green Levittown, with the Bethpage Federal credit union, where over a 10 year fixed loan the homeowner will actually pay a monthly payment and at the end of the year will make more money in the savings of the heating system than it will cost them to pay for the loans.

AMANDA: (2: 45:21) Can you tell me more about the soybean oil that you’re using?

DENNIS: (2:49:07) Sure. We use what is called a B5 blend, which is 5% soybean oil and 95% heating oil. We’re starting off with B5, they do b10, b20. But at this point the infrastructure on Long Island is best suited for B5 blend and what excites me about it is it’s starting something small and eventually, I don’t know if soybean will be the ideal choices, but we’re setting up an infrastructure for an alternative fuel. The reason why I don’t know if soybeans will be, as you’re probably aware they are a controversial issue as far as people how people are changing crops and destroying farm lands to make fuel based products. Ideally, about 5 years from know what we’re going to hopefully be selling is an algae based fuel It’s much healthier for the environment and it doesn’t affect the food chain.

AMANDA: (3:47:10) What do you think as a long island resident what Levittown is doing? How do you feel about it? And do you think it will eventually spread to the rest of the island?

DENNIS: (3:55:12) First I’m very proud of the project as an idea of how exciting the project is, tomorrow I leave for DC to help represent green Levittown at the national climate change summit. It got the attention as being the first project to actually take municipal government and local sponsors, like an oil company like myself and really change the mindset of one community and this summit how they do this and replicate this across the nation. So is it going to get larger? I really do believe so. I wouldn’t be surprised if you see a green Long Island come up in the near future although there’s no budgeting for it yet.


DENNIS: (4:45:05) Bio-fuel is a renewable source using agricultural resources. It decreases the emissions that are released into the environment and it doesn’t cost anymore, you don’t need to change your existing equipment to use it. It also is a cleaner fuel meaning that when it runs through your heating system it actually cleans out the oil lines, cleans out the heating system so it requires less service, making the homeowner more satisfied.

AMANDA: (5:12:19) Do you have anything else you want to tell me about?

DENNIS: (5:17:16) So far the results since the project began in November, we’ve actually replaces 37 boilers which may not seem like a tremendous amount considering there are 17,000 homes. However, there’s only 5,100 who still have original equipment and their only 30 per cent done with the canvassing. The CCE is going door to door and there’s about a month delay between when we knock on that door and we actually speak to the homeowner and then the homeowner has to make a decision to change the equipment and then we actually have to do the installation. I can tell you that there are hundreds of leads we’re still working with. And we’ve done a nice number of conversions to bio heat where people have switched to Tragar oil, so I believe we are really making a difference in Levittown.

AMANDA: (6:05:01) Do you have a lot lined up for the future? Like you just said it takes a little while for it to turn around, for you to install it and everything? Do you have a lot of appointment in the next couple of months to do installments?

DENNIS: (6:20:21) Right now is a unique time for this project to be taking place. We’re obviously in an economic recession so to say. We’re asking people in green Levittown to put on new roofs, change their heating systems, go with solar panels, making large investments on their homes when their probably looking to save money on their tax returns rather than spend them. We have a lot of estimates out there and now it’s really a turn to see what people will choose. And if they were to evaluate the savings for making a green decision they will actually spend money today but save it tomorrow, which would really be the best decision they could make.