Protestors fight to keep Finger Lakes propane prices high

None of these folks use any fossil fuel

Overshadowed by the Finger Lakes elite's war against shale gas, those of us who heat our modest homes, or lakefront mansions, with costly propane, are also under attack.

Inergy Midstream, a Kansas City based gas distribution company, proposes to store the popular fuel in the former International Salt caverns, 2600 feet under under Seneca Lake  An existing propane terminal in the Town of Reading, north of Watkins Glen, would be expanded, serving both truck and rail transportation.  Of course, the prospect of increased economic activity, jobs, and lower heating bills for the common folk has drawn the attention of the "no fracking" crowd.

The usual suspects turned out by the Prius load to express their outrage at last night's DEC hearing on the project.  As is usually the case at these affairs, the only pro-storage speaker was from the energy company.  None the less, Inergy president Bill Moller made his case.

Bill Moller, president of Kansas City-based Inergy Midstream, the company proposing the project, was surrounded by project opponents and peppered with questions during an informational session before the hearing began.

“I don’t know when home heating became the enemy of this community,” he told them. “We’re providing a cheaper, reliable, cleaner-burning source of energy. That’s what we’re doing here....”

There’s a high demand for propane in the region, Moller said, and that’s because it’s currently shipped by truck from other parts of the U.S.

“New Yorkers are paying the highest propane prices in the country,” Moller said.

Around 800 opponents, none of whom apparently heat their homes with propane, use a barbeque grill, or have ever visited a propane-powered winery, heard Moller explain:

...that propane has been stored in the town for about 50 years, and that from 1964 to 1984, about 4 million barrels were stored in the same salt caverns, and said propane accounts for 25 percent of Schuyler County's energy use.

"We're not storing fuel oil," Moller said. "We're not storing crude oil. We're not storing coal. We're storing clean energy. Clean fossil fuels."

Bold added.  Word on the street is that the anti-energy mob was rude, or downright hostile, to anyone who was not opposed to the project.  

After Moller spoke, however, the 800 or so energy opponents who made the trip to Watkins lined up to discard their smart phones and give up the keys to their cars, then walked home silently in the dark.