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20 MARCH 2014 | FUEL OIL NEWS | www.fueloilnews.com FUELS By KEith REid interview: PGANE's Joe Rose F or those unfamiliar, the Propane Gas Association of New England, headquartered in Epsom, N.H., is a trade association representing nearly 675 members who sell propane or propane-re- lated appliances and equipment in the six New England states. PGANE exists to serve the propane industry by promoting safety, education and public awareness of the uses of propane. Its membership includes the nation's largest propane companies, and many small companies that are often family owned and operated — many for several generations. PGANE was incor- porated in 1950 and roughly 80% of the association's members are also oil dealers. FON Interviewed PGANE President Joe Rose for a run down on the organization and some of the issues it will be facing in the near future. FON: How do you support the technical development of your mem- bers? Rose: There is a national pro- gram in the propane industry called the Certified Employee Training Program, and we offer that. We also offer specialized training for the states that require continuing education, and specialized training for members who need operator qualification training for certain types of propane systems that are regulated by the public utilities commissions in various states. We offer seminars at our meetings on timely topics, for example, our upcoming meeting will talk about propane supply planning. But, we will also be talking about how to grow our businesses organi- cally by adding new customers, as opposed to swap- ping accounts with each other. Those are some of the things that we do FON: What are some of the big legislative challenges PGANE is looking at today? Rose: For the last couple of years we've been very active in trying to resist the expansion of natural gas, to the extent that we do not want to see public money used for the expansion of a competing fuel. That activity is hap- pening in Vermont, Connecticut, Maine and, to a lesser extent, in Massachusetts. We are also trying to maintain and achieve parity from a tax perspective in terms of the use of propane as an automotive fuel. And, just in general, we try to maintain a favorable business environment for our members. We are working in a couple of states with dig safe laws, trying to bring us more into the Dig Safe Program. We are working with consumer legislation in a couple of states, which seems to have been a popular trend in the last few years, to try to protect the consumers from themselves. We are doing some work in a couple of states with pre- buy legislation, which is as an especially hot topic in New Hampshire. To the extent where we have mutual issues, we work with the Vermont Fuel Dealers Association, Maine Energy Marketers Association, Connecticut Energy Marketers Association, Massachusetts Energy Marketers Association and the Oil Heat Council of New Hampshire. We've worked hard to improve our communications with our membership and our partners in the govern- ment, and we try to have that type of partnership relation- ship with the regulatory officials such as fire marshals and licensing divisions. We are going to continue to strive to get a little better every day. FON: Propane supply received a lot of the national attention this year, but what was the impact in the New England? Rose: We didn't have a propane shortage in New England. Supply certainly got tight in December, but we were out in front of that and were able to utilize the import terminals in Providence, N.H. to bring cargo in from overseas to mitigate a shortage situation. Certainly, when we brought propane and from Joe Rose 1024 Suncook Valley Highway, Unit C-5, P.O. Box 1071, Epsom, NH 03234-1071 Telephone: 888-445-1075 Fax: 888-612-8098