The home heating oil industry has a long and proud history, and Fuel Oil News has been there supporting it since 1935. It is an industry that has faced many challenges during that time. In its 77th year, Fuel Oil News is doing more than just holding
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/443276
www.fueloilnews.com | FUEL OIL NEWS | JANUARY 2015 17 Fuels l F O N FON: Do you have an idea of a timeline for how things will proceed from here? Rose: I would think, this could come online probably a year after its approval. The good news is the filling part can start almost immediately, which can happen over the spring and summer. The other thing that's kind of neat about this is that it's connected to the Texas Eastern pipeline. So they might not have the rail or truck loading racks built at the beginning of next winter, say it's approved at the beginning of February or March, but they will be able to inject the product back into the Texas Eastern Pipeline and take it out at Watkins Glen, Oneonta and Selkirk. Frankly, for the New England group, we want to take it out at Selkirk anyway. We are not interested in sending trucks to Watkins Glen, and I don't know how inter- ested we are in railcars. So, from that perspective, it would be available to us almost immediately. FON: As we start the New Year, what are some of the Association priorities? Rose: We really have two big priorities: getting these two big storage facilities online, both Finger Lakes and Sea-3, and secondly we are working on a big project to recruit new tech- nicians and drivers into our industry. [Another terminal road- block in the Northeast involves Sea-3, a division of Trammo, in Newington, N.H. Sea-3 annually moves some 200 million gallons of liquefied propane, and is working expand the rail yard to handle more propane capacity.] We know that as our industry continues to age, this is going to present some real problems. Quite frankly, it's getting tougher and tougher to recruit new people. We're not in an emergency situation yet, but now is the time to get out there and be talking to young people about what the industry has to offer. The reality is that not every young person is going to go to college, so it's really important that they know that there is an alternative. They don't have to necessarily go to college to earn a good living. And if they don't want to be a service technician, there's a group of people that can take a stack of tickets and deliver fuel, and earn a good living and be home at night. It's steady, year-round work, so I think it's all good. But getting the word out requires advertising and promotion. FON: Are there any state-level regulatory issues you have an eye on? Rose: We have had the Fred Fuller sale to Rymes Propane & Oil. [Cash flow issues last year led to a lack of service for pre- buy customers, and sparked significant regulatory push back in New Hampshire.] And, I mention it in this context. The state of New Hampshire moved pre-buy customers ahead of all the creditors. And, nobody else is getting paid except for the cus- tomers, and that's scary to me. As a state association executive I'm not saying it's bad that the customers got paid, I want them to get paid, but it's just a bit scary that the state swooped in and did this, and a lot of my members did not get paid and are not going to get paid. So what I'm worried about now is two fronts: Did we change the laws of bankruptcy without changing the law? And, if we didn't, are they going to go back now and try to change the laws and what impact is that going to have? Quite frankly, the propane industry's position in New England's is going to be ban pre-buy. Because, the state already told us in New Hampshire last year, that they do not have the ability to manage an escrow account. The cost of processing a bond, if a small company can even get a bond, is prohibitive. And quite frankly, who is going to enforce that? It all comes down to the states do not have the people in order to enforce these things. So the only thing the states can do without spending a lot of money, quite frankly, is to ban pre-buy. But the state legislatures hate to take away choices from customers. Also, In the state of Vermont somebody is proposing a $0.45 per gallon carbon tax. No bills have been submitted yet, but there's talk of that on all carbon-based fuels. That's kind of a crazy idea. We conceptually support energy efficiency, but Vermont is a small state and there are a lot of borders. To think anybody is going to buy gasoline, diesel fuel or heating fuel inside the borders of Vermont, and not cross the borders to get it that much cheaper, is kind of a nutty concept. So, we're keeping an eye on that.