Promoting propane’s place in a clean-energy future

Climate activism is a well-funded and profitable global business seeking to eliminate the use of all fossil fuels.

Activist groups impatiently direct their efforts toward switching to an entirely renewable energy future many decades before it can possibly be attainable. Climate activists claim the moral high ground on this issue and are fighting to keep it. Global, national and local groups such as Greenpeace, Sierra Club, Fossil Free, Green America and others do not seek to debate. They want to cancel the use of fossil fuels today with no recognition of how clean energy sources like propane can provide a wider, faster path to net-zero energy.

Here are a few of the many actions you can take as the owner or manager of a local propane business to fight off the cancel energy crowd and transform into the clean energy answer in your community.

1. Promote the energy value of propane. Determine the all-in cost of electricity statewide and from the public utilities or rural electric co-ops serving your propane marketing area, and stay up to date on those costs. Compare that electricity cost with the price of propane on a cost-per-Btu basis. In most parts of the country, electricity costs have risen well beyond the cost of propane due, in part, to the cost of their partial transition to renewable electricity sources. Double-digit increases in the annual cost of electricity are becoming common. Make sure your employees understand these cost comparisons and take pride in discussing the advantages of propane with your customers and others in the community.

2. Be involved in local government. Know your local, regional and statewide officeholders and what comes up on their agendas that could affect propane. Attend meetings when you can, and become the clean energy voice in their world. A lot of bad energy decisions can be headed off if you are in the right place at the right time to educate decision-makers about propane.

3. Defend your energy turf. Be an active member of your local Home Builders Association and the local chapter of the Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors Association. Attend their meetings and special events regularly, and use the information available from the National Propane Gas Association, Propane Education & Research Council and other sources to sell the clean energy story of propane.

4. Update your message delivery platform. If your website is three or more years old, it is time to replace it. Don’t take the me-too template approach. Have a professional website built and maintained, including search engine optimization support. Have a social media platform built to match, and carry through with a posting and paid advertising strategy that retains customers and reaches out for new business as well. Develop a marketing plan that may include other ways to deliver your clean energy messages, such as periodic customer newsletters and statement stuffers.

5. Push for the availability of renewable propane. Ask your wholesale propane suppliers about the availability of renewable propane. Tell them you want to offer renewable propane to your customers as an option. You will get blank stares or silence on the phone in the beginning, but at least you will begin to challenge them to help develop a renewable propane supply chain from producer to wholesaler to retailer to end user. Renewable propane availability needs to become a part of our message to consumers to offset the false morality coming from climate activists. What is moral about driving up the cost of living, especially for the lower and middle classes?

Head to renewablepropanegas.com to learn more about renewable propane and its properties.

Tom Jaenicke is vice president of propane marketing services for Warm Thoughts Communications. He can be reached at tjaenicke@warmthoughts.com or 810-252-7855.