United Metro Energy, Leading Long Island

Like it or not, winter is coming, and it’s time to start thinking about how you’re going to keep warm. Long Island’s own United Metro Energy Corporation can heat your home or business more efficiently with their biofuels, not only saving you money, but the environment as well.

“They are, without question, the largest full-service energy company on Long Island, from Manhattan to Montauk,” said Paul Miller, Creative Director of Pinwheel Advertising, who has been working with United Metro Energy since 2009. United Metro lives their motto, “fueling a sustainable future,” by producing and delivering a wide range of clean-burning, renewable biofuels. Their fleet of 55 delivery trucks runs entirely on their own blend of Biomax biodiesel, reducing their annual carbon emissions by 750,000 pounds.

United Metro Energy was born early this year, when the 60-year-old, family-owned and -operated Metro Fuel Oil Company partnered with the Red Apple Group. Since then, they’ve built a new petroleum storage facility at Enterprise Park, in Calverton, to service the East End. “It’s right at the end of a commercial rail spur that goes from the heart of New York City all the way up the spine of Long Island and terminates on their property,” Miller said. United Metro’s new facility was the former home of Grumman’s jet-fuel research lab. “It’s an ideal location for expanding into Long Island, and that was a pretty amazing move.”

The Red Apple Group was created by Westhampton Beach resident and former New York mayoral candidate John Catsimatidis, and was ranked 97th largest privately owned company by Forbes. Among their many holdings are the United Refining Company in Pennsylvania, and United Riverhead Terminal Inc. in Riverhead, making them great strategic partners. United Riverhead’s offshore platform is the only deepwater loading/unloading station on the Eastern Seaboard, and regularly services supertankers. “It’s really like a three-cornered hat between Riverhead, the Pennsylvania refinery and then Calverton and Brooklyn,” Miller said. “They’re in a unique position, and they have the financial support and wherewithal to make it happen.”

As green initiatives take hold across the country, incentives are being offered to switch to biofuels in the form of tax credits. “It’s amazing how much people do not know about biofuel, these tax-credits, and what’s going on with our fuel,” Miller said. By adding biofuels to conventional fuel, a tax-credit of up to 20 cents per gallon can be applied for. “A lot of people don’t know that they could be getting up to 20 cents per gallon back on their fuel if they have this bioheat component,” he said. Biofuel is good for more than just the environment and your wallet—it acts as a detergent that cleans your tank, reducing maintenance.

The facility at Greenpoint in Brooklyn is set to manufacture 110 million gallons of pure biofuel a year, making them one of the largest producers in the country. “A lot of the biofuel right now is made using corn, which is ethanol based, and there was a big backlash because the ethanol was taking food out of the food stream,” Miller said. “The biofuel facility will work off of almost any renewable feedstock, everything from restaurant grease to algae, and any kind of plant products.”

The Brooklyn plant, which is on the same site that Metro Fuel Oil has been since 1942, was specifically designed to produce biofuel as efficiently as possible. “In the past, when anybody had a procedure for developing biofuel, the residue had to be sent out west to the refineries and then brought back again, but now this going to be happening in the Brooklyn plant,” Miller said. “They have a built-in cycle of refining the final residue, so they get almost 100 percent usability, because what’s left is a pure glycerin which then goes into making lipsticks, makeups and the like.”

In addition to producing their own biofuels, United Metro does equipment installations, test and cleans tanks, general maintenance and repairs, gas conversions, and sales for both residential and commercial properties, and delivers natural gas. “United Metro Energy doesn’t just deliver heating fuel—they’re a full-service company,” Miller said.

For more information, visit metroenergy.com.