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December 13, 2004
CONGRESS PASSES INTELLIGENCE BILL, ADJOURNS FOR YEAR
Last week, the 108th Congress completed its work and adjourned sine die. Adjournment was more than 2 months later than the original “targeted” adjournment date of October 1. The House adjourned on Tuesday, the Senate on Wednesday. The 109th Congress will convene at noon on January 4, 2005.
The final major piece of business for Congress was passage of the comprehensive Intelligence Reform bill containing many of the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. One provision in that bill is of particular interest to many SIGMA members: a provision calling on the states to issue drivers licenses and identification cards in a common machine-readable format. The provision, while useful for security purposes, will also help c-store operators in their compliance efforts on sales of age-restricted products like tobacco and alcoholic beverages. SIGMA supports the provision, but much of the credit for its enactment should go to NACS, which lobbied actively on the issue.
In its final session last week, Congress also passed a final revision to the huge Omnibus spending bill. That revision was a provision stripping out language that would have allowed certain Congressional committee members and staffers to look at individual income tax returns. Once that language was stripped out, the overall spending bill was sent to the President. He will sign that bill soon, as well as the Intelligence Reform bill – if he hasn’t done so already.
NEW ENERGY SECRETARY
A major re-shuffling of the Cabinet is underway in preparation for the second Bush term, with at least 9 of 15 positions changing hands. On Friday, the new nominee for Energy Secretary is Sam Bodman. For the past 4 years, Bodman has been Deputy Secretary of the Treasury and Deputy Secretary of Commerce. Prior to that, he was in the private sector as Chairman and CEO of Cabot Corporation, and President and COO of Fidelity Investments. He has also taught at M.I.T. His views on energy issues are little known; however, at the Commerce Dept., he oversaw the Administration’s climate research program. If confirmed by the Senate (fully expected), he will replace Spencer Abraham.
HOW SMALL IS SMALL?
The Small Business Administration published an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) on Dec. 3, looking for comments on possible ways to revise the size standards for qualifying as a “small business”. Currently there are 37 different standards; SBA wants to simplify the size standards, perhaps by using number of employees or receipts. A number of other issues are also raised, including affiliation and joint venture provisions, separate definitions for government procurement, tiered standards, and grandfather provisions for existing small businesses.
COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS
Senate Democratic Leader Reid (D-NV) announced his party’s committee assignments last week, subject to formal ratification by the Democratic Caucus. Republicans have yet to announce their changes. Most committees will give a 2-seat advantage to Republicans, except for the Ethics Committee (equal numbers) and the Intelligence Committee (1-seat advantage to Republicans). For the committees we care about most:
Senate Environment & Public Works – departing members are Reid (D-NV) and Wyden (D-OR), who moved to other committees, and Graham (D-FL), who retired. New members are Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Obama (D-IL).
Senate Energy – departing members are Schumer (D-NY) & Bayh (D-IN), who moved to other committees, and Graham. New members are Corzine (D-NJ) and Salazar (D-CO).
MTBE LIABILITY
API President Red Cavaney told the press he is confident that Congress will resolve its differences over the issue of MTBE liability, and that API will not “give ground” when Congress debates the issue next year.
LOW-SULFUR GASOLINE
EPA has reportedly advised PMAA that it need have no concern about a March 1, 2006 deadline for low-sulfur gasoline at retail. PMAA’s concern was that the timing for turning tanks might conflict with the turn for summertime low-RVP gasoline, creating supply nightmares. But EPA estimates that the corporate pool average for sulfur for 2005 will be 90 ppm. Thus, EPA says retailers will for the most part have compliant gasoline (below 95 ppm) months or even a year before the deadline, and there will be no need for significant tank turns in 2006.
TRUCKERS & DRIVERS
The Transportation Security Administration has now formally issued an “Interim Final Rule” on background checks, delaying to 5/31/05 the deadline for states to implement the fingerprint-based checks for transfer and renewal applicants for Hazmat driver endorsements. We reported two weeks ago that this change was pending. The delay applies only to transfers and renewals; new applicants still face the 1/31/05 deadline. There are some other changes made by the interim final rule, related mostly to what crimes are disqualifying.
On a separate note, we understand that several major trucking companies and associations have told the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) that, with some reservations, they might support the mandated use of electronic onboard recording devices to monitor driver hours-of-service rules.
ETHANOL TAXES
There seems to be a lot of confusion surrounding the changes in ethanol taxes that will take effect January 1, including (reportedly) some confusion among refiners. The bottom line is that the amount of the tax incentive for ethanol has not changed, but how it is administered will change – and that may change who gets the incentive and how they get it. A meeting has been scheduled between refiners and the IRS for tomorrow (Tuesday, Dec. 14) on the topic. Also, we refer you to the detailed memo from SIGMA’s attorneys available by clicking here .
HIGHWAY BILL
Leaders of the applicable House and Senate committees say they expect committee action on long-term re-authorization of transportation programs (the “highway bill”) to be completed in February, but it is unclear how long after that it will take for action by the full House and Senate.
TANK INSTALLATION STANDARD
The Petroleum Equipment Institute (PEI) has announced that its Tank Installation Committee is in the process of revising its Recommended Practices for the Installation of Underground Liquid Storage Systems (PEI/RP100-2000). Although only PEI members will vote on the changes, input from the entire industry is invited. The deadline for recommendations or suggestions for revisions to this standard is January 21, 2005. Go to www.pei.org/RP100 to either submit comments online or to download a form that can be mailed or faxed. If you have questions, call Bob Young at 918-494-9696 or e-mail him at byoung@pei.org .
GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS
As we reported in our Sept. 27 issue, California acted to require automakers to limit emissions of carbon dioxide and other “greenhouse gases” from new vehicles by 30%. Now a group of automakers and auto dealers has filed suit in Federal court challenging the regulation. The main argument: that such a rule amounts to a back-door fuel economy standard, which only the Federal government may adopt.
NEW SESSION AT WMC
A new educational session has been added at the NPN/SIGMA Winter Management Conference – Lowering Your Electric Utility Costs. Dean Leischow, or LGI Energy Solutions will address utility rates and specific ways to reduce your utility costs. Matt Essig of Dencor Energy Controls will address demand billing and ways to minimize demand charges. Stewart Spinks of Spinx Oil Co. will elaborate on how he has cut his electricity costs by thousands of dollars per store per year. Get this and much more in the way of valuable education, Jan. 30-Feb. 2. For more information or to sign up, click here !
FRIENDS FROM ENGLAND
Many members may remember David Dovey and Robert Fraser of the Lakeside Group in England, who made presentations to SIGMA conventions on hypermarkets a few years back. We are pleased to note that Susie Hawkins, a member of the Lakeside Group, was winner of the ACS, NACS & AACS Scholarship Retailer Prize 2004. She competed against entries from the US and Australia to win the prize. Although this is a little belated – she won the prize in October – we still offer our congratulations!
SIGMA Weekly Report December 13, 2004 © Copyright SIGMA, 2005
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