Steve Ahrens has held several jobs around Jefferson City through the years, and now he's being honored for his tenure as president and CEO of the locally headquartered Missouri Propane Gas Association.
Ahrens, who lives in Jefferson City with his wife, Carla, is set to be inducted into the LP Gas Hall of Fame in Nashville in April. Ahrens has been with the association since late 1999 and has served in numerous roles for the group, from leading the Missouri Propane Education and Research Council as its president to leading as an officer for the group's former for-profit subsidiary, MLPGA Inc.
"I've had a really good team over the years, and however the ceremony goes I think it's a group effort with the folks who have worked in this office," Ahrens said. "In getting to know a lot of my peers and other status propane associations, it's clear that we're serving a really great community."
Before joining the association, Ahrens worked in several positions in state government after a tenure as a reporter, including as director of publications for the Secretary of State's office and as an employee with the Office of Administration.
Shortly into his tenure with OA, the opportunity to head MPGA came up. After initially turning it down, he stepped into the role just before the start of the new millennium and found his niche working with businesses of all sizes.
"I didn't have any association experience, but it was an interesting change of pace," he said. "Over the years, I've come to realize this is such a wonderful community. We're not really an industry; we use that term a lot, 'industry.' But it is a community of largely family-owned businesses, and even the big companies, the multi-staters, the majors, they all kind of feed from those smaller businesses. I really, really enjoy that. It's a great group of people to work with."
Ahrens has largely had free rein to try new things as the group handles the propane sector's marketing training, education efforts and checkoff system. He has also been managing the Arkansas Propane Gas Association during the past several months, lending his leadership skills to the neighboring organization for the time being.
He is also focused on the surge in alternative fuels and clean energy many energy providers are charging ahead with. Ahrens said while many groups -- and governmental grants -- are focused on electric vehicles as a way to reduce carbon emissions, there's also an increased demand for propane-powered vehicles like school buses.
"Missouri has the unique opportunity to be cleaner and less cost-involved," he said. "Electric vehicles are great, but we get most of our electricity from coal anyway, so it's not very efficient. But propane is cheaper and is produced by a chemical combustion process that really creates no emissions. We're probably somewhere between a decade and a generation away from hydrogen being the super-clean fuel. In the meantime, you've got these hydrogen-rich fuels that can do an awful lot in the power generation space."
He said propane was more resilient to cold temperatures as well, remaining a liquid before temperatures of 40 degrees below and lower turn it to vapor. And while the diesel used in large vehicles like school buses comes with an added health risk, he said propane did not. Federal grant money available to schools would also have paid for multiple propane-powered buses rather than the one electric model many districts opted for.
He noted the propane-fueled option was only viable for larger vehicles like buses or commercial trucks that typically run on diesel.
With plenty going on in the propane community and his induction on the horizon, the highlights of Ahrens' work with the association have been its forward momentum, the multitude of people and businesses he has worked with, and the results he has seen from his work.
"I think my passion for the work goes back to when I was a reporter before I worked for the state," he said. "I like the process of creation and seeing something emerge from your efforts. We often have a tangible work product and a tangible result and something not necessarily measurable, but you can see what you did at the end of the day and be proud of it."