Helium shortage a major letdown

It’s a bummer when the life of the party doesn’t show up.

And it’s become an epidemic across the United States. The life of the party isn’t showing up and, when it does, it typically costs a lot of money.

Swing by a local party store and you’ll learn there is an extreme, nationwide shortage of helium. It’s really letting the air out of some bashes.

Suzanne McGoldrick has been in the balloon profession for more than a decade and opened her Sin City Balloons shop in 2009. As a party planner, creativity is her specialty. Lately innovativeness has become equally essential to her success.

“I have felt the effects, but fortunately I’m able to do balloon décor filled with air,” McGoldrick said. “In terms of balloons, people think of them floating in the air. But the price (of helium) has gone up considerably. The last few weeks, I haven’t been able get any at all.”

The cost of the largest canister once ran about $90, but now distributors are charging well over a hundred dollars, sometimes several hundred, because of the demand.

Distributors can no longer take on additional clients, so when McGoldrick describes her business plan as “taking it day by day,” she is serious.

In many ways, we are all at fault. That flat-screen television you just purchased? Yes, helium is essential to that beautiful picture.

And helium isn’t just for fun. It is very critical to health care because the element cools magnets inside MRI machines.

So where has all our beloved helium gone?

According to the National Journal, the United States — Texas specifically — is the most prolific producer of helium. But when helium-generating plants in Algeria, Australia and Poland shut down, the worldwide supply plunged.

Combined with the shuttering of plants was federal legislators’ decision to pass the Helium Privatization Act in 1996, according to the National Journal. The law limited the amount of helium that could be sold to private companies annually.

The legislation is scheduled to sunset in 2015, but the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee may extend it, the Journal reported. So it could take an act of Congress — or close to it, anyway — to get these signature party guests back in the loop.

That has not stopped McGoldrick from fulfilling her customers’ dreams, no matter how elaborate.

“For me personally, the helium shortage is a problem but I still address my clients’ needs; I give them the vision they want within parameters available,” she said. “I don’t allow that to get in the way of me servicing my customers.”

Balloon Sensations, a smaller outfit that fills online orders, has been completely out of helium for weeks. Marianne, an employee at the shop who asked that her last name not be used, explained that the price has simply become too overbearing. Canisters that once went for $140 now are sold for $240.

“The economy has been bad, too,” Marianne said. “We’ve been in business for 25 years and really haven’t seen anything like this.”