Propane gas used for cooking and public transportation has become harder to find at the distributors’ sites. El Caribe says there is no short-term solution at hand, as the government has accumulated a large tab with importers. The government has been subsidizing the cost of fuel, keeping it at RD$25 per gallon, while other fuel products have doubled in price primarily reflecting the falling peso. Despite the stable price, however, propane distributors have less and less supply every day. El Caribe reporters say that of all the places visited in Santo Domingo, only one distributor was selling. Long lines of cars are parked at the distributors, awaiting arrivals of supplies. The newspaper attributes the scarcity of the much-used fuel to the suspension of sales of Mundogas, which had previously imported 10% of national consumption demand, and to the constant delays in paying the subsidies to Coastal Petroleum and the Dominican Petroleum Refinery (Refidomsa), the two leading importers. Average consumption of propane gas is 22 million gallons a month. Diario Libre newspaper reports that according to the president of the Refinery, Amaury Justo Duarte, the government already owes RD$250 million in overdue subsidy payments. Meanwhile, the newspaper reports that sales of coal used for cooking have soared, as people regress to an old-time method of food preparation, the anafe. Since the 60s, propane gas stoves were encouraged to combat the devastation of Dominican forests and are widely used.