DOT to renew 5% special permit through 2012, Barrett says

Just a month after the U.S. Department of Transportation announced it was renewing the special "5 percent permit" through 2010, DOT announced it was extending the permit through 2012. The announcement came from Deputy DOT Secretary Tom Barrett during a speech to Propane Days attendees in Washington, D.C. June 10-11.

Permit 13341 allows transportation of consumer storage tanks containing propane in an amount greater than 5 percent of the tank's water capacity (up to 500 gallons).

The current permit is available on the NPGA website at http://www.npga.org/.

Worthington issues another price hike

Worthington Cylinders announced June 9 another 10 percent price increase on all steel heating and system tanks ranging in size from 200 to 420 pounds.

"Our raw material costs continue to escalate," said Dusty McClintock, vice president of sales and marketing for Worthington Cylinders. "We are aggressively working to minimize the impact of raw material cost increases through continuous improvement initiatives at our production facilities. However, due to the magnitude of these increases, we must adjust pricing accordingly."

Prices will increase with all orders shipped on or after July 15, 2008. This increase is in addition to the 11 percent that was previously announced this year on all heating and system tanks.

DOT, NTTC want hazmat truck equipment mandate

The Department of Transportation (DOT) will likely propose requiring certain types of new trucks to be equipped with electronic stability control systems, even as National Tank Truck Carriers (NTTC) announced its intention to petition the agency to mandate the equipment for new trucks hauling hazardous materials.

According to a report in the June 2 Transport Topics newspaper, National highway Traffic Safety Administration officials say it is likely there will be a rule-making in 2009 that will look to mandate electronic stability controls on new vehicles.

Officials at the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration confirmed that the agency was discussing electronic roll stability requirements with PHMSA and NHTSA for possible publication in early 2009.

Electronic stability has been identified in a joint industry-government study as a way to significantly reduce rollover crashes, which account for 52 percent of truck-occupant fatalities and three out of four hazmat spills.

NTTC's Executive Committee voted May 18 to petition DOT to mandate the technology on trucks hauling placarded hazmat loads. The association supported a mandate only on new equipment, and not as a requirement to retrofit existing trucks.

Pipeline rate litigation decision delayed again to Sept. 30

A decision on the three-year-old lawsuit by the National Propane Gas Association and a coalition of shippers on the MAPL pipeline has been extended to Sept. 30, 2008.

The litigation before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission opposes two rate increase proposals filed for the pipeline that would raise rates by almost 100 percent and significantly drive up the cost of shipping propane to the important northern Midwest marketplace.

Chief Administrative Law Judge Curtis Wagner on June 4 extended the time for an initial decision. His order states in part "The Chief Judge will extend the time for the issuance of the initial decision in this proceeding in view of the fact that the hearing lasted about two months and the record consists of testimony from 13 witnesses, on 3,245 pages of transcript and 564 exhibits. In addition, the proceeding involves 37 issues, several of which are novel, while others are extremely complex."