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Propane Users Urged to Prepare For Winter

Propane Users Urged to Prepare For Winter
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By West Kentucky Star Staff
Nov. 21, 2014 | FRANKFORT, KY
By West Kentucky Star Staff Nov. 21, 2014 | 04:44 PM | FRANKFORT, KY
Another colder-than-average winter could cause propane shortages across Kentucky for a second season in a row.

High demand last winter caused the residential rate of propane to roughly double to just over $4 per gallon last winter.

State energy officials and a propane industry trade group told state lawmakers Friday that they have urged consumers to fill their propane tanks early, sing up for automatic delivery and enroll in payment plans in hopes of avoiding a late-winter run on propane, also known as LP gas.

“Those are things that can be done very easily without significant investment,” said Gregory T. Guess, of the Kentucky Department for Energy Development and Independence, to members of the Special Subcommittee on Energy, which held a hearing on the issue.

Last season’s shortage, and a possible shortage this season, is an issue of getting the propane to where it is needed and not supply, Guess said. He presented legislators with figures showing the nation’s annual propane production has increased by nearly 600,000 barrels since 2005.

Guess said there were multiple causes for last year’s shortage including producers exporting more of the gas rather than selling it in the domestic market. The United States went from exporting nearly no propane in 2005 to 400,000 barrels so far this year, according to the state energy department.

Compounding the problem are issues with the nation’s energy infrastructure, Guess said. A propane terminal for a pipeline that served Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri sprung a leak last year in its cavernous underground storage system, located just north of Cincinnati. The terminal went from storing 40 million gallons of propane in mid 2013 to 210,000 gallons.

“The question I got is what is being done by the industry to fix the problem of storage in this area,” said subcommittee co-chair Rep. Richard Henderson, D-Mt. Sterling.

“If the Cincinnati storage tanks went from 40 million to 200,000, it is going to adversely affect low-income homes from now on unless we fix that.”“They can still supply product but they don’t have the instant ability to draw down on that 40 million gallons that were in the nine underground caverns they had,” Guess said.

While the residential price of propane in Kentucky has fallen back down to its historical price of around $2 per gallon, Guess said state energy officials are closely monitoring the situation. Many families, particularly in northern Kentucky and the Jackson Purchase region, use propane to heat their homes.

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