Governor Scott Walker has declared a State of Emergency as a precautionary step in response to unexpected and intermittent service interruptions on the Mid-America East Blue Pipeline at the Janesville terminal. January and February are months that propane customers typically begin refill their tanks, and with the cold weather temperatures forecasted this week and next, this precautionary declaration allows propane truck drivers to travel to other terminals if they need to, to bring supply into the state. “We’ve taken a number of steps in the past year to help avoid another propane shortage like the one that impacted the Midwest last winter, and it’s important that we continue to take proactive measures to avert issues whenever possible,” Governor Walker said. “Early indications suggest that this is a short-lived supply interruption, but given the forecast, we are exercising caution to protect the health and safety of our citizens which is first and foremost.” The Mid-America East Blue Pipeline is below capacity and has recently experienced intermittent service interruptions. This pipeline serves four states, including the Janesville, Wisconsin; Dubuque, Iowa, and Rockford, Illinois, terminals and storage facilities. The Janesville and Dubuque terminals are crucial in supplying propane to southern Wisconsin, but they are also used to help supply propane to other areas of the state. On January 8, 2015, deliveries resumed to most Mid-America East Blue Pipeline propane terminals, but operations at the Janesville terminal, the last stop on the line, still remain intermittent. As always, carriers remain responsible for ensuring they operate safely during the Energy Emergency and if we can safely end the declaration earlier, because operations have resumed at full-capacity, we will look to do that. The Department of Administration’s State Energy Office will closely monitor the supply for the 250,000 customers who use propane in Wisconsin. Governor Walker serves as Chair of the Midwestern Governors Association, and the propane supply to the Midwest has been the Governor’s primary initiative. Below are just several of the preventative measures taken in 2014 to help ensure an adequate propane supply in Wisconsin:
February 2014 – Governor Walker requested that the federal government establish a propane supply chain working group. On February 1, 2014, Governor Scott Walker sent a letter to President Barack Obama urging his administration to establish and lead a propane supply chain working group to coordinate the movement of propane from where it is available to where it is needed in the United States.
Summer 2014 – Summer Fill Program. The Department of Administration’s State Energy Office reports that about 50 percent more propane came into Wisconsin in the months of June, July, and August 2014. This indicated that consumers responded to summer-fill programs, and many propane marketers around the state reported that more customers purchased propane during the summer than ever in the past.
August 2014 – WHEAP Early Fill Program. State energy officials reached out to 25,000 households across Wisconsin that participate in the Wisconsin Home Energy Assistance Program (WHEAP) to help fill their propane tanks before the cold weather set in. DOA’s WHEAP program began processing applications in August (instead of starting on October 1 when the program officially begins) for the 11 percent of WHEAP households that use propane. WHEAP estimated the amount of heating benefit a customer would receive and then locked in the lower summer price with a propane dealer who worked directly with the WHEAP customer to establish a future delivery date. More consumers took advantage of the early application process in the WHEAP program than ever before.
October 2014 – new Hixton propane terminal opened. Built by CHS, this new terminal has the ability to store 360,000 gallons of propane, offload six railcars every four and a half hours, and load six trucks per hour in the terminal’s two truck loading bays. The terminal also features modern terminal automation and safety technologies. CHS signed a long-term agreement with Federation Cooperative in Black River Falls to build the terminal at 144 Depot Street South in Hixton. Federation Cooperative will manage and operate the propane terminal.
- In 2014, the Cochin pipeline, owned by Kinder Morgan, Inc., was repurposed to become an export pipeline to ship natural gas condensates to Canada, resulting in a loss of propane supply into the Upper Midwest of about 300 million gallons annually. The Hixton terminal is a part of a $24 million CHS investment in four states, and is expected to bring approximately 15 million gallons of new supply into Wisconsin annually to help offset the loss of supply that would otherwise have come from the Cochin pipeline.
