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 Contact: Susan Crosby, (703) 709-7000

Molly Martin, (703) 709-7000

SIGMA LEGISLATIVE MEETING A GREAT SUCCESS!

Motor Fuel Marketers Made Their Voices Heard

WASHINGTON, July 27, 2005 – Approximately 45 motor fuel marketing members of the Society of Independent Gasoline Marketers of America (SIGMA) made approximately 215 Capitol Hill visits with their U.S. legislators in Washington, D.C. on July 20, 2005.

“We went to our nation’s capital to educate energy bill conferees about the issues we face on a daily basis,” said Mike Ports, president of Ports Petroleum Company, Inc. out of Wooster, Ohio.  “The conferees completed their negotiations, and many of SIGMA members’ meetings influenced those key debates.”  
 
The impeccable timing for the Legislative Meeting presented SIGMA members with the opportunity to meet with several of the energy bill conferees during key debates.  SIGMA was pleased to see several of the board’s priorities in the proposed bill.
 
Those successes include a repeal of federal RFG oxygenate mandate; a reduction in the RFS' seasonal use mandate from 35 percent to 25 percent; authority to blend compliant RFGs for limited periods each summer in the event of RFG supply disruptions; the first federal restrictions on the proliferation of "boutique fuels" and marketer protection from Clean Air Act citizens suits during EPA emergency fuel specification waivers; and comprehensive reform of the federal LUST program.  
 
Unfortunately, the final conference agreement did not include SIGMA's top energy bill legislative priority—an MTBE safe harbor.  “The failure to achieve an MTBE safe harbor is a negative development for the entire motor fuels manufacturing and distribution industries,” said SIGMA counsel Gregory Scott.  “MTBE aside, SIGMA enjoyed significant success on many other issues of importance to marketers.”  For more information, including detailed legal memos, please visit www.sigma.org <http://www.sigma.org/>  or call (703) 709-7000.
 

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