| Senator introduces bill that would require temperature compensation |
| U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) on Aug. 3 introduced the F.A.I.R. (Future Accountability In Retail) Fuel Act that would require the installation of automatic temperature compensating equipment in all retail gas station pumps within six years to adjust the price of gas as it expands due to warmer temperatures. |
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| NEFI confronts “dark exchanges” |
| Excessive speculation and volatility on the energy commodity markets has impacted small business fuel dealers and the American energy consumer, Sean Cota, president of the New England Fuel Institute, told a Senate subcommittee. |
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| National Conference to weigh proposal for voluntary temperature compensation |
| The next major development in the “hot fuel” controversy could come in July, when an organization of standards experts considers a proposed model for temperature compensation at the retail level.
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| Price gouging bills continue to roll forward |
| So called “price gouging” bills (H.R. 1252 and S. 357) as regularly covered by NPN are working their way through both the House and Senate and could seriously impact petroleum distribution and sales throughout the United States. |
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| Study: Law against price gouging would backfire |
| Legislation backed by 86 members of the U.S. House of Representatives would establish a federal law against price gouging — and it wouldn’t work, according to a study commissioned by The American Council for Capital Formation, a business advocacy group based in Washington, D.C.
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| P.U.M.P. It UP |
| Retail fuel marketers announce new coalition in response to temperature compensation controversy.
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| Plan for 20-percent gasoline reduction met with criticism |
| In his State of the Union address on Jan. 23, President Bush called for a 20-percent reduction in United States gasoline consumption within 10 years, a call that was being met with skepticism from both environmentalists and the oil industry, The Houston Chronicle reported. |
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| EPA opens 2007 with rulings on boutique fuels, ethanol and ORVR |
| The Environmental Protection Agency got 2007 off to a flying start with a number of announcements that affect petroleum marketers: |
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| Underground storage tank regulations slated for EPA implementation on Feb. 8 |
| To aid the implementation of significant changes made by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to federal underground storage tank regulations, the Environmental Protection Agency on Nov. 15 issued final secondary containment grant guidelines for states. |
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| Report: Government should increase investment in renewable energy |
| A report released in September by two Washington-based think tanks called on the federal government to step up investment in renewable energy sources in order to reduce United States dependency on foreign oil. |
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| Environmental Protection Agency finalizes UST prohibition guidelines |
| In August, the Environmental Protection Agency issued its final delivery prohibition
grant guidelines as required by the Energy Policy Act of 2005. |
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| House of Representatives closes summer session with a flurry |
| With the summer recess looming, the United States House of Representatives was a beehive of activity as July reached its climax. |
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| EPA releases final report on boutique-fuel reductions |
| On June 23, the Environmental Protection Agency sent to Pres. Bush the final report of the Boutique Fuels Task Force on ways to reduce the number of boutique fuels in the United States and increase state cooperation on gasoline supply decisions. |
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| FTC releases report on post-Katrina price hikes |
| In its investigation, the FTC found no instances of illegal market manipulation that led to higher prices during the relevant time periods but found 15 examples of pricing at the refining, wholesale or retail level that fit the relevant legislation’s definition of evidence of “price-gouging.” |
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| Congress turns eye on gasoline prices — again |
| Here we go again. On April 24, Republican leaders in Congress sent a letter to President Bush asking for an investigation into whether oil companies are “gouging” consumers and if market speculators are driving gasoline prices up, reported Reuters. That came on the heels of a letter signed by 15 Senators urging the Bush Administration to support legislation that would give states new powers to prosecute retailers who engage in so-called price gouging at the pump, reported The Associated Press.
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| Legislation targets oil-industry activities |
| On April 6, a group of Senate Judiciary Committee members introduced legislation that seeks to promote competition in the oil and gas industries in order to reduce fuel costs.
The legislation, which was not immediately given a bill number, would be designed to keep fuel prices low by preventing companies from withholding oil and gas in an effort to raise prices. A joint federal and state task force would also created by the legislation to investigate information sharing between oil companies to determine if that practice has encouraged anti-competitive pricing.
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| Fuels on the horizon: E85, Biodiesel and ULSD |
| The comprehensive energy legislation passed by President Bush in 2005 includes a nationwide renewable fuels standard that will double the use of ethanol and biodiesel by 2012. Under the RFS, a small percentage of the nation’s fuel supply will be provided by renewable, domestic fuels including ethanol and biodiesel. The RFS will start at 4 billion gallons in 2006 and increase to 7.5 billion gallons in 2012. It provides for 2.78 percent by volume renewable fuel use in 2006.
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| Congress is set to return ... But to do what? |
| when Congress adjourned in December 2005, there were many questions regarding the possible agenda for 2006. In the weeks that followed, the situation has gotten significantly murkier, as the political world in Washington, D.C., was turned on its head.
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| Preparing the industry |
| ULSD hits pipelines in June 2006 and must be at pump islands by October. Several organizations, including the Society of Independent Gasoline Marketers of America, are dedicated to educating marketers about the new fuel and making sure the transition to ULSD will be a smooth one.
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| Senate hears testimony on price gouging |
| At a joint hearing of the Senate Committees on Commerce, Science and Transportation and Energy and Natural Resources on Nov. 9, a panel of attorneys general and the Federal Trade Commission testified on the issue of pricing and consumer protection. Price gouging, or the threat of it, has been a hot topic among legislators in the wake of the rapid run-up of gasoline prices after hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
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| House and Senate take up refinery expansion bills |
| House and Senate take up refinery expansion bills
Hurricane Katrina was one of the most catastrophic disasters this country has ever seen. The one-two punch culminated with Hurricane Rita that further brought the Gulf Coast — the hub of this country’s oil refining industry — to its knees. Though EPAct 2005 was considered a success by many groups, the storms exposed the inadequacy of the legislation and served as a wake-up call for Congress to consider several strategies to increase refining capacity in this country. |
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| Legislation would curtail USPS cigarette deliveries |
| “Undeliverable” is how U.S. Rep. John McHugh, R-N.Y., would like to classify cigarettes and other tobacco products being shipped through the mail via the U.S. Postal Service. |
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| Congress passes UST reform measure |
| The 1,200-page “Energy Policy Act of 2005” (EPAct 2005) that President Bush signed into law in early August included provisions providing for substantial reforms to the federal underground storage tank program. The enactment of EPAct 2005 marks the end of eight years of work by the Society of Independent Gasoline Marketers of America with other marketer groups, Congress and the Environmental Protection Agency to achieve these reforms. |
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| This Little Congress Went to Conference |
| With the June 29th passage by the Senate of its version of comprehensive energy legislation, the Congress now proceeds to conference negotiations to resolve the considerable differences between the packages of the two chambers. |
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| Energy bill's benefits |
| What kind of reception is the new energy bill getting from the industry? There are some concerns, of course (see the following feature), but the overall reaction to the legislation seems to be positive. |
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| Biodiesel — An Affordable Renewable Fuel |
| The stage is set for Congress to deliver an energy bill this year. When gasoline prices reached an average of $2.28 a gallon at the pump in April, Congressional members experienced an avalanche of calls demanding that Congress "do something." The expected 2005 energy bill will likely mandate that 5 to 8 billion gallons of renewables, such as ethanol and biodiesel, be added to motor fuels by 2012. |
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| Another step closer ... Can they finally do it? |
| The U.S. Congress has taken another step toward enacting comprehensive national energy policy. And with the backdrop of consistently high energy prices — including, of course, gasoline — the pressure to finish the job it started several years ago is growing. But there remains a significant hurdle — the U.S. Senate. |
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| MTBE Safe Harbor: A key marketer issue |
| By the time this column appears in NPN, the House Energy and Commerce Committee (and perhaps the House) will have finished its work on its version of 2005 National Energy Policy legislation. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee adopted a slightly revised fuels title last month, which will be incorporated into a larger energy bill expected to be passed by the Senate Energy Committee this Spring. |
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| Diesel fuel news is bad in 2005, and could be worse in 2006 |
| Ever since September 2004, diesel fuel prices have taken off, sparked by a rise in crude oil prices, limited supplies and record demand for diesel. By late October, diesel fuel prices peaked at $2.21, which was 18 cents per gallon more than the price of gasoline. But by early March 2005, they were again nearing record highs, with the national average topping $2.10 per gallon, and prices in California reaching nearly $2.40. |
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| LUST, Taxes and UST Reform |
| To the uninitiated, the title of this Washington Perspective might seem a bit racy for a magazine devoted to petroleum marketing. However, for motor fuel marketers and owners of underground petroleum storage tanks, the acronym LUST is anything but sexy. It represents the hundreds of millions of dollars that marketers have spent since the 1980s upgrading, replacing and maintaining USTs in anticipation of the 1998 federal deadline and almost two decades of paying one-tenth of a cent per gallon into the federal LUST Trust Fund — a federal tax that is not passed through to the consumer but is instead “eaten” by the marketer. |
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| Congress returns to face a still unfinished energy bill |
| The 109th United States Congress, sworn into office on January 4, began its work in late January in what promises to be a very interesting session. What will the new Congress hold in store for petroleum marketers? That is still a very good question. |
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| Victories in the end of the 2003-04 Congress |
| For most of 2003 and 2004, Congress seemed to accomplish very little. Budgets weren’t adopted, appropriations bills weren’t passed and major pieces of important legislation simply stalled. |
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| The Outlook for 2005 |
| At the time this is being written, it is only hours after the Nov. 2 election. On the surface, the results are clear — President Bush has been elected to a second term and the Republicans have picked up seats and strengthened their majority in both the House and Senate. |
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| C-stores, tobacco benefit from Jobs Creation Act |
| While out on the campaign trail, President George W. Bush found the time to lend a helping hand to the convenience-store and tobacco industries when he signed the American Jobs Creation Act (H.R. 4520) on Oct. 22.
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| Anti-boutique fuels bill introduced in Congress |
| In late September of this year, Reps. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and Paul Ryan, R-Wis., introduced H.R. 5165, a bill to amend the Clean Air Act to reduce the proliferation of boutique fuels. |
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