Shortage of propane, Nation wide, trasport drivers hours of service rules lifted.

Here in Maine, we were under exemption from December until March 1st. We had a brutal cold snap at the end of Dec. that lasted for 10 days. Temps got down into the minus 30 degree range at night, barely hitting zero in the day and it created a major propane shortage up here. There were some days I worked over 16 hrs and some of my coworkers were at it for 24 hrs at times. I ended up hitting 90 hrs one week. I drive transport and every place I went for almost 3 weeks had basically no product to deliver. People were screaming for product and there just wasn't any to be hauled at times and even then, the pedal trucks hauled it away faster than us transport drivers could haul it in. Had that cold spell lasted another week this state would have had a very serious problem.

 

There is propane in my county some delivered by rail road.

I have not heard anything about a shortage. Although I am not a user of propane.

A check of American inventory indeed show a decline in some areas.

https://www.eia.gov/special/heatingfuels/resources/Propane_Briefing.pdf

Rail to different US Regions and Canada.

Propane Movements by Rail

 

It wasn't a shortage of product per say, it was a shortage of "supply" at the railroads and pipeline distribution points. Demand spikes, and the railroad and pipeline facilities can't keep up. Plenty of gas in the ground for a couple of centuries.

Lots of "new" loading facilities popped up since the chaos back in 2011 when we were waiting 24 hours and more to get loaded, then drive 18 miles to a bulk plant to unload and go back and wait another 24 hours for the next one. That spearheaded a movement by the lobbyists to see what was going on.

There were several ships sitting in Houston bay waiting to unload into the storage facilities on shore but couldn't because they were chuck full. That product from Houston gets pushed into various distribution pipelines to feed the northeast and other regions.Lobbyist groups from the energy industry petitioned congress to just divert the loaded LP ships to another port closer to New England so they could get some product, but there is an old maritime law dating back to the 1950's that prohibits an American registered ship that loaded in the USA to deliver that load into another US port other than the one it was destined to...some crazy law that should have been abolished years ago caused a serious mess.

From that stemmed a new industry paradigm known as "transloaders", which is a self-contained machine on a tag-a-long trailer equipped with an engine driven compressor, a platform to climb on and equipment to be able to unload railcars in the railyards, hence the age of transloading propane. They started building them out west by the droves and suddenly they were showing up everywhere a train could sit and a truck with a propane bottle could park next to it, eliminating the long lines at the normal racks at pipeline facilities like Enterprise and GSR/Duke Energy plants.

I got a belly laugh out of the new concept myself, as they cut off their noses to spite their faces, losing tons of business due to greed. No longer did Amerigas, Ferrell Gas, Centex, etc. need to depend on the choked-down supply at the pipeline, they had an option and still continue to do so to this day. Now a lot of the gas gets loaded in our own country or Canada and brought to various strategic points in the Northeast where LP gas is a big source of energy. But still, when it gets bitter cold, the transporters can only do so much. There's plenty of gas...it's just harder to maintain supply when there's only so many cargo containers in the arsenal.

 

He (Mustang190) just answered your question. "A man's got to know his limitations"...If I remember right, a fella by the name of Clint Eastwood said the same thing first.

Clear-thinking, seasoned men that know the difference between safe and not know how far they can go before it becomes a problem. I do it all the time, and I made it 40 seasons so far without incident. If you can't handle the heat, get outa the kitchen they say. That's the best advice I can give anybody worried about it.

 

Could not have said it any better.

 

I remember running down to the pipeline in mississippi to get propane back in the late 90's from pa there was a big time shortage in the northeast that winter.

 

Hattiesburg?

 

couldn't tell you it was over 20 years ago lol

 

In 2011 when the Enterprise pipeline in Selkirk, NY was shut down for repairs during the peak demand, retailers were having propane brought into New England from as far away as Todd Hunter, Ohio and Houston, Tx. The owner operator was raking it in then, lol.

 

I remember the great shortage. I am not certain of it now.

A few years closer than that back about the icestorm of 2000 which was pretty serious for us, I recall our in laws had a hell of a time getting their little 250 gallon tank filled. They got it filled at about three times retail on a weekend. But they got it filled.

Back home we are on oil with firewood to support. Usually twice a year it gets filled to 350 gallons or so. The firewood has become more important as the oil prices increased. Before that we had coal in the childhood home then oil later. We also had gas. That was supplied from imports out of such places like Iran back in the day. Sent to the gas mains in SW baltimore. Three of them big enough to serve the whole city.

We are on electricity now for everything and unfortunately for us there are two poles on 64 when cut by people running into them darkens the entire area. So at any time we can be back to oil lamps and battery LED type situation as well as a Irish Stove for cooking if necessary via charcoal.

My previous home was electric with natural gas. I remember paying about 3 something CCF for it. Go through about 30 or so dollars worth each month. It came to the main at 95 to 120 PSI through a plastic flexible pipe (Earthquake Code...) and reduced to 5 psi before house service gets it.