Paul D. Reid SIGMA President

How has your business changed since 1958 when SIGMA was founded? For some, there was no business fifty years ago—for many others there has been a sea change. Fifty years ago the Reid business was more concerned with TBA than cpg; our differentiator was farm implements not food service; we sold more heating fuel than motor fuel and our warehouse had as much space allocated for major oil promotional give-aways as lube oils. Looking back, it’s hard to believe we were doing so many things differently—it was only fifty years ago.

Back in the days, trade associations like SIGMA were forming to help marketers improve supply. Here in New York, the Empire State Petroleum Association headed by Fred Meader was in its infancy—dedicated to helping NY marketers improve relations with their suppliers. Back then government was not the center of our industry relations efforts—none of us realized at the time how critical our trade groups would become in representing us before our state and federal governments. SIGMA and others prevented our industry from cooking like the frog in the slowly heating water. Today, while the water continues to heat up, SIGMA is ready to meet the challenge… and what a challenge it is.

According to the Competitive Enterprise Institute the annual cost of complying with regulations in the United States has climbed to over $1.1 trillion—exceeding the GDP of our neighbors Canada and Mexico. Think about that one. The cost to our society of complying with all the good government we have created exceeds one trillion dollars per year. Meanwhile regulatory agencies continue to grow like Topsy even under supposed conservative political leaders. Our government published over six thousand new rules in 2006—over 3,700 of them final rules constituting nearly 75,000 pages in the Federal Register. The communists that managed the former Soviet Central Economic Planning Ministry—Gosplan, must be envious. Our Congress and their progeny in the regulatory state are taking on Gosplan-like attributes with increasing emphasis on making rules and specifying markets versus allowing the free market to work.

The energy industry alone serves as an example with detailed fuel specifications, mandated fuels, CAFE standards, oil and gas production constraints, A/UST tank rules and one of my recent favorites—the phase out of the incandescent light bulb. Much like the MTBE debacle of recent years, the new CFL bulbs will create a toxic pollution scare once the mercury in them is released. I am confident here in New York, we will solve that problem by placing a deposit on the bulbs and setting up recycling machines in our stores to accept the used CFL bulbs.

As our government undertakes to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, we might look forward to limits on people population, pets, all manner of energy burning machines and appliances, new tree and shrub mandates all with a view to protecting the environment or the children or whomever. I do not know if you share my view that these increasingly intrusive actions of our administrative state constitute an affront to our freedom but I view them as such. How did our forefathers survive without all the good government that we have today? Increasingly, I think we need to ask ourselves how our liberty will survive if we continue to passively accept ever more good government.

Regarding our business interests, I am thankful we have SIGMA to keep the sharpest edges of the modern administrative state from cutting us too deeply. Looking ahead to the next fifty years, SIGMA will be as important as ever. I urge you to be involved to keep us strong and vital. Thank you for your SIGMA support.