LP Gas, April 2017

Fast and furious From cylinders to cranes issues aplenty in an already busy Washington P ut the new presidential administration and cabinet appointments aside look beyond hot button issues such as immigration and health care and scroll past the latest cringe worthy tweets from President Donald Trump I couldnt resist Undoubtedly Washington has been a hotbed of activity early in 2017 but Im speaking more directly to issues concerning the propane industry For example the first few months brought us a change in U S Department of Transportation cylinder requalification regulations the welldocumented 12 years to 10 years shift which the National Propane Gas Association NPGA is working to reverse It brought us closure on hoursof service 34 hour restart regulations for commercial truck drivers And it brought us the Volkswagen U S Environmental Protection Agency EPA emissions violations settlement and potential financial rewards for propane industry stakeholders to the forefront Coming down the pike A conversation with NPGAs Phil Squair and Mollie ODell revealed several other issues that could impact the propane industry in the months ahead The industry dodged the Occupational Safety Health Administrations OSHA crane rule several years ago when OSHA extended the compliance date to Nov 10 2017 But now a rule nears that would require some crane operators to have third party certification which the propane industry argues would become a costly and timeconsuming responsibility EDITOR IN CHIEF BRIAN RICHESSON Thats quickly gone to the top of our agenda because it doesnt make sense for us to have third party certified crane operators working in our industry says Squair the senior vice president of public and governmental affairs at NPGA Were working on building a coalition and approaching Congress to get relief from that rule or carving out that our companies could certify their employees through the PERC Propane Education Research Council curriculum Also on the agenda Supply and distribution issues have been top of mind since the bitter 2013 14 winter when the industry experienced challenges moving propane in timely fashion to needed destinations In recent years NPGA in partnership with IHS Markit has developed a propane inventory report to update members on supply numbers and trends and ultimately to ensure enduse customers have propane when and where they need it NPGA says this report provides members with the timely information they need because it also accounts for growing U S propane exports unlike the U S Energy Information Administrations EIA inventory report The association wants EIA to include a calculation of exports in its data We have an inventory trends analysis that shows days of supply are half the level of EIA data Squair says This is confusing to the marketplace and a disservice to the public if EIA numbers are unnecessarily optimistic From the EIA to EPA NPGA is working to equalize the treatment of propane and natural gas vehicle manufacturers As it stands manufacturers have an incentive under Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards to produce natural gas vehicles The incentive was not given to autogas vehicle manufacturers EPA also was set to implement changes to its Risk Management Program in March but delayed them until June NPGA says these new modifications add even more burdens for large propane facilities pertaining to incident investigations and compliance audits and is providing feedback to EPA On the radar A proposed border adjustment tax BAT introduced last summer has drawn plenty of attention in Washington though its future is unclear BAT is designed to exempt exports while taxing all imported goods at the corporate tax rate reduced from 35 percent to 20 percent NPGA felt the tax proposal warranted an ICF International generated memorandum outlining potential impacts on the domestic propane market e g higher wholesale and retail propane prices to share with the industry Squair says NPGA will approach the export friendly border tax as an energy security issue and less of a tax issue If the code taxes imports and doesnt tax exports it will be even tougher for us to maintain days ofsupply numbers Squair adds LPG brichesson@ northcoastmedia net 6 LPGas April 2017 www LPGasmagazine com