COLUMBIA--Henry Minshew's family business has sold propane in the Lowcountry for 40 years, but the state of South Carolina is about to shut it down.

In less than two weeks, Minshew's license to operate the Johns Island-based Fas Gas will expire, and the Liquefied Petroleum Gas Board has refused to issue him a new one -- solely on a technicality.

State Attorney General Henry McMaster this week characterized the law that the board based its decision on as "constitutionally suspect," and Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell called Wednesday for a Legislative Audit Council investigation of the agency.

Charleston lawmakers say the law threatening Minshew's livelihood was written to weed out competition in the natural gas industry, and they want to repeal it. McConnell, R-Charleston, pushed a bill to change the law through the Senate, but it stalled Wednesday in the House.

This delay, forced by a lawmaker who is also a propane dealer, has all but eliminated any hope of rectifying the problem before Fas Gas loses its license.

"Government is supposed to be here to help people, not to limit competition," McConnell said. "I want a management performance audit of this board. I want to know what is the public interest in having it."

The law in question imposes a 30,000-gallon minimum liquefied petroleum storage capacity for any gas dealer in the state and the tank must be located "within close proximity to the area served." Minshew shares a 30,000-gallon tank with a propane business next door to his that formerly belonged to his brother. The arrangement has suited the two companies for years.

State Rep. James Battle, D-Nichols, objected to McConnell's bill coming up for debate in the House on Wed-nesday and said he wanted to offer an amendment that will solve Minshew's problem by letting grandfathered businesses retain their status if they remain in the same family.

Battle, a propane dealer whose cousin sits on the LPG board, said the storage capacity requirement was meant to keep the propane industry -- and customers -- from suffering through bad weather.

"If a propane dealer runs out during a cold snap and people go without heat, it gives the whole industry a black eye," Battle said.

Minshew said that hasn't happened here in the 40 years he's been in business and calls the explanation a "sham." He and other small business owners say it was snuck through the General Assembly a decade ago to make it hard for small companies to go into business. Tanks that large that can handle the hazardous chemicals cost tens of thousands of dollars at a minimum, more than most small businesses can afford.

When the capacity law passed in 1993, Fas Gas was grandfathered in as a pre-existing business. But a few years ago, Minshew changed the name on the company's title from his brother's to his. The LPG board declared it a change in ownership, and the new owner had to comply with current laws. The neighboring company was unaffected.

The board let Minshew operate through the winter, but his grace period is up April 13.

Minshew says he can't afford a legal fight, so he took his problem to McConnell. The Charleston Republican thought it was a suspicious law and asked McMaster for an opinion.

That opinion, released Tuesday, said it appeared the law was similar to a Missouri bill that an Appeals Court said places an "unconstitutional burden on interstate commerce." South Carolina's law, like Missouri's, requires any company -- even an out-of-state company selling liquid gas here -- to have at least a 30,000-gallon tank in the state.

McConnell's bill breezed through the Senate but has spent weeks in the House Labor, Commerce and Industry Committee. Reps. Wallace Scarborough, R-James Island, and John Graham Altman III, R-West Ashley, have tried to get the committee to pass it out, but at Battle's request the bill was held up a week. Battle blocked Scarborough's move to pull the bill from committee Wednesday.

Scarborough said he is against the proposed amendment Battle has offered. "The attorney general has said the law is constitutionally suspect. Why would we amend a law that's unconstitutional?"

Scarborough and Altman have lobbied the LCI committee chairman, Rep. Harry Cato, to move the bill and feel confident it could reach the House floor by the end of next week. The problem is that the House will be furloughed the week after that -- the week Minshew's license to operate expires.

Battle said the board does not want to see Minshew shut down and that his amendment to the bill would let him stay open. Scarborough questioned the board's intent, however, since it was the board and the industry that proposed the law in the first place.

McConnell's call for an audit of the LPG board Wednesday got the support of at least a half-dozen senators in mere seconds. The powerful Charleston lawmaker said he wants a look at the agency's track record, to "just see whose interests they protect over there."

Meanwhile, Minshew can do nothing but await word from Columbia.

"I'm hoping for the best," he said.