Heft limits may rise for fuel trucks Highway rules eyed to address shortage

The state’s adjutant general wants federal highway truck weight limits lifted temporarily to help bring more propane into Maine.

“These trucks, because of weight restrictions, are only half full,” said Capt. Shanon Cotta, spokesman for Maj. Gen. Bill Libby of the Maine National Guard.

As adjutant general, Libby serves as commissioner of the state Department of Defense, Veterans and Emergency Management.

In Maine, trucks weighing more than 80,000 pounds are restricted from highways, including Interstate 95 north of Augusta. Trucks weighing up to 100,000 pounds are allowed to use the Maine Turnpike because it was built before the federal rules were put in place.

The federal government would need to approve lifting the weight restriction for trucks to carry more fuel, Cotta said.

Meanwhile, Maine’s tight supplies of propane aren’t getting any help from the weather, which once again delayed the arrival of another tanker with supplies for the region, the Governor’s Office said Thursday.

A tanker carrying 12 million gallons of propane that was due to arrive Thursday in Providence, R.I., was slowed by bad weather. The tanker is now due on Saturday, said David Farmer, spokesman for Gov. John Baldacci.

Another tanker is scheduled to arrive March 2 in Newington, Mass. The incoming supply will help to alleviate the shortage but will not solve the issue since several states will have access to its supply.

A few rail cars carrying propane have arrived in Maine, but a strike since Feb. 10 involving the Canadian National railroad continues to cause disruptions. Maine has been hardest hit in New England because it gets 60 percent to 70 percent of its propane by rail.

“Every day is touch-and-go,” Farmer said.

Last week, Baldacci declared a state of emergency to reduce restrictions on work hours for fuel truck drivers to allow them to drive longer in order to bring the fuel into the state from points to the south.

While Libby, who also has the Maine Emergency Management Agency under his jurisdiction, was talking about raising weight limits, Baldacci was talking with Canadian oil leaders.

The governor’s trip to New Brunswick on Wednesday was planned well before Maine’s current propane shortage, but he took the opportunity to meet with Kenneth Irving, whose family owns Irving Oil Corp.

“During the meeting, Gov. Baldacci and Mr. Irving talked about Irving’s plans to expand its refinery in Canada, energy cooperation and the ongoing tight supply of propane in Maine. To my knowledge, no firm plans were made on any topic,” Farmer said Thursday by e-mail.

The governor also toured Irving’s St. John refinery, the largest in Canada and the source for much of the state’s heating oil, and other petroleum products.

Propane ranks behind heating oil and natural gas for heating homes in New England, but tens of thousands of homeowners use it for everything from heating homes to running cookstoves and clothes dryers.

Propane distributors have said hospitals and nursing homes are on the critical need delivery priority lists.

In Maine, more than 25,000 homes, or roughly 5 percent, use propane as their primary source of heat, according to the census.

So far, no one was being forced to go without. But propane dealers have been partially refilling tanks instead of topping them off to stretch tight supplies.

Through talks with Canadian leaders, a number of rail cars, estimated to be between 20 and 75, with each carrying up to 30,000 gallons, are expected to arrive by Monday, state and congressional officials said Thursday.

“They were all to be in Maine by the 26th of February,” Jake Cummings, special assistant to U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe’s chief of staff, said Thursday by phone from her Washington office. “They’re not all there yet.”

The rail cars are being moved by a short-line partner of the striking railroad.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.