AgWired

One of the people I spent some time talking with here at Propane Days is Mark Leitman, Director of Agriculture Programs for the Propane Education & Research Council. Mark is the go to guy when it come to ag and propane.

Because of the way the law was written that created PERC, 5% of the organization’s funds have to go to projects to benefit agriculture. He really wants to make sure the word gets out about all the exciting things they’re doing in this area. Some of those including poultry house sanitizing, and using steam to kill weeds. I found a project they’re working on to fumigate buildings and structures with propane created heat to be fascinating. PERC is also working to develop a cotton defoliating process which would reduce the amount of chemicals being used.

Basically he says PERC’s mission is to make farmers more productive. He also wants people to know that they’re looking for projects to fund in this area since PERC is a grant making institution. He would be the guy to contact if you’re interested.

You can listen to my interview with Mark here: propane-days-07-leitman.mp3

It appears that we’re going to see more interest and maybe more products in the area of vehicles that use propane due to the engine fuels program work of the Propane Education & Research Council. The man in charge of this area is Brian Feehan. He’s pictured here to the right of a group that I was working with this morning (Mark Leitman, Stuart Flatow, Roy Willis and Brian).

Brian says that there’s discussion going on now in the area of using propane with tractors and combines. PERC hopes to be involved as part of their federal mandate to invest at least 5% of their funds to develop products that would benefit agriculture. Brian says PERC is about a $50 million dollar/year program btw.

With all the efforts to reduce our dependence on foreign oil he says that propane holds great promise as one of the alternative fuels that will help us meet our goals over the next 10 years. For example, he says that they’ve done research which conservatively shows that propane can displace about 1 billion gallons of gas by the year 2017.

Brian says that there’s a federal tax credit of 50 cents/gallon for on and off road use of the fuel in vehicles which is money back in the pocket of those who use a fuel that right now is very competitive with highly priced gas. Brian also says that every R&D project PERC funds has to have a commercialization component so that there’s a plan for how to bring products to market after they are developed.

You can listen to my interview with Brian here: propane-days-07-feehan.mp3

The folks on Capitol Hill have definitely received an education when it comes to propane this week at Propane Days. One of the very important things they learned about is propane safety.

The propane safety man is Stuart Flatow, VP, Safety and Training for the http://www.propanecouncil.org/trade/agriculture/index.cfm“>Propane Education & Research Council. Stuart points out in an interview I did with him that in the event that a spill occurs with propane (unlikely if handled properly) it won’t harm the environment or animals that may be around because it won’t contaminate the ground or water. He thinks this is very important for people, especially farmers, to know.

Stuart says he works closely with the PERC agricultural advisory committee and has helped develop a program customized for ag called “Dispensing Propane Safely.” For people needing to find propane safety information he suggests visiting here for consumer safety, here for other types of propane safety programs and here to order materials.

You can listen to my interview with Stuart here: propane-days-07-flatow.mp3