THREE HONORED AT SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND ENERGY CONFERENCE
At the Southern New England Energy Conference on September 25 in Newport, Rhode Island, John Bowman of F. F. Hitchcock received CEMA’ s Marketer of the Year Award; Michael Devine of NORA received the Associate of the Year Award, and Ray Albrecht of Clean Fuels Alliance America received the Industry Service Award.
CEMA has presented a Marketer of the Year Award for over 60 years to marketers who have made significant contributions to the industry. The company of this year’ s recipient, John Bowman of F. F. Hitchcock in Cheshire, Connecticut, has actually been in business longer than even that, as it was founded in 1870. Bowman’ s outstanding contribution as the chair of CEMA’ s Legislative Committee is being recognized in this award. In Connecticut, the“ Green New Deal” bill was to mandate the
conversion of 300,000 homes to heat pumps. F. F. Hitchcock is a diversified company selling not only heating fuels, but also full-service HVAC and plumbing. And they install heat pumps, too. His expertise on heat pumps, both their pros and cons, so impressed the legislative committee during hearings on the proposed bill that the chair, a fuel oil sceptic, wanted to learn more and ended up having breakfast with John along with more follow-up meetings. As a result of creating this positive relationship with a key legislator, the heat pump mandate in the bill was killed. Bowman was also instrumental in CEMA’ s setting up Legislative Action Districts, which created decentralized member lobbying groups throughout the state to target influ-
John Bowman was instrumental in CEMA’ s setting up Legislative Action Districts, which created decentralized member lobbying groups throughout the state to target influential legislators.
John Bowman Michael Devine www. fueloilnews. com | FUEL OIL NEWS | NOVEMBER 2025 13