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No Pain Propane

Courtesy photo

  ***  Please note the original  post had two thousand homes, the number is roughly 15  percent of Iowa homes or just over 183 thousand**

Good news for those who use liquid propane; from backyard grillers to farmers and to homeowners. Prices are at an all-time low.

Iowa Agriculture Department Energy Analyst Harold Hommes says those who grill will probably not notice, “when we get into those small cylinders at retail generally with the price of the exchange and that process we don’t see that fluctuate too much.”

But he says the impact will be significant for the 183 thousand or so Iowans who heat their home with LP , “that’s where it’s going to make a huge difference, this fall and this winter, people who are now just taking advantage of summer fills and buying opportunities.”

Hommes says inventories are so high across the border in Canada that producers are giving it away, “in fact a couple weeks ago I noticed they had a subzero value, meaning they would actually pay transporters, truck and rail, to get it out of there because frankly they had a glutton of product right now and they need to get it out.”

And here in Iowa, he says “we’re starting to see where, at retail, consumers are going to be able to lock in a dollar and less for prices this fall. You certainly would have to go back a few years to find less than dollar propane and think we’re going to see, depending on different locations of the state, anywhere from $0.70 to $0.95 and $1.00 mark, but certainly a very favorable value compared to where we were at just a couple years ago.”

Pat Blank is the host of All Things Considered