December 23, 2002

LOTT RESIGNATION LIKELY TO AFFECT PACE AND AGENDA

Senate Republican Leader Lott (R-MS) announced on Friday that he will not pursue taking office as Majority Leader in the new Congress. It appears that a conference call of Senate Republicans on Mon., Dec. 23, will elect Sen. Frist (R-TN) as his replacement.

Republicans had planned to “hit the ground running” when the new Congress convenes on Jan. 7. Such a plan relied on having a lot of issues being resolved in negotiations prior to the beginning of the session. But with their party’s leadership in question, there was nobody on the Republican side who could speak with authority to do the necessary negotiating with Senate Democratic Leader Daschle (D-SD). Even committee structures and appointments haven’t yet been finalized. In fact, if agreements aren’t reached during the next two weeks, the Democrats could still be in control of the committee structure on Jan. 7.

As a result, it looks like the new Congress will not be as quick out of the box as had been expected only a week ago. It is likely there will be some delay in dealing with appropriations for the current fiscal year, and probably some slowdown on energy legislation. Based on their political positions, there is no reason to expect a significant change in the agenda for the Senate based on the replacement of Lott by Frist. However, the firestorm over Lott’s comments that led to his downfall is likely to have a continuing effect. There is now an expectation that racial issues will become a factor in a wide variety of policy debates including tax policy and judgeships. So far, no one has suggested any impact in energy-related issues.     

JOCKEYING FOR POSITION

Even with the Lott controversy going on in the “foreground”, in the background December has been typical for an even-numbered year. Lots of meetings have been and are taking place between various associations, between their lobbyists and key Congressional staffers, and with key administration officials. The purpose of these meetings is to stake out positions on issues coming before the new Congress, to line up allies, to narrow differences, and in general to set the stage for the coming year. SIGMA is always involved in this process, and is very involved this year. We are working to be sure marketer concerns are considered in a wide range of areas where legislation is expected to be considered.  

SPCC DELAY: 1 YEAR OR MORE

At a meeting on Dec. 13, EPA formally announced a delay of the Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasures (SPCC) rule changes which were to have taken effect in January. The delay will be for at least a year, as EPA “regroups” to reconsider the topic. Equally important, EPA will NOT delay the parts of the new rule that restrict the applicability of SPCC. Thus, the old SPCC rules will remain in effect, except that they will apply only to USTs over 42,000 gallons and aboveground tanks (ASTs) of over 1320 gallons.   

DRESSER WAYNE & TOKHEIM

The Dept. of Justice’s Antitrust Division continues to be interested in marketer views on the potential Dresser Wayne acquisition of Tokheim assets. A few marketers have already talked with DOJ to express their concerns. If you have views on this potential development, make them known NOW to the Dept. of Justice. Call SIGMA attorney Tim Columbus at 202-342-8555; he’ll put you in touch with officials at DOJ.    

LOW-SULFUR DIESEL

SIGMA met last Tuesday with EPA’s Margo Oge about the low-sulfur diesel rule, as a follow-up to the Houston workshop. We are to have comments to EPA on the Houston draft of the Q&A document by mid-January, which EPA hopes to finalize by the end of March. We also discussed the need for a “downstream rule” dealing with such issues as nozzle sizes, flow rates, etc., to protect marketers from charges of mis-fueling. EPA indicated that, in the absence of “consensus among stakeholders,” it planned no action at this time. (An interesting excuse. Lack of “stakeholder consensus” didn’t prevent EPA from adopting the low-sulfur rule in the first place!) SIGMA will discuss these issues further at our Legislative Committee meeting in Denver Jan. 17.