NATSO, the national trade association representing truckstop and travel plaza operators, staged its annual government affairs conference in Washington, D.C., May 5-9, as more than 80 association members roamed the halls of Congress lobbying members in support of NATSO positions.
A key regulatory issue for truckstop operators is the planned phase-in of new low-sulfur diesel fuel mandated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Under the EPA rules, diesel fuel must be formulated to contain no more than 15 parts per million of sulfur by 2006 – a 97 percent reduction from the current 500-ppm sulfur content standard. The U.S. Department of Energy backs a plan that calls for a gradual phase-in of the new fuel. The DOE recommends requiring that 80 percent of on-highway diesel fuel production meet the 15-ppm standard by 2006, and the remaining 20 percent of production will be phased in over the next four years.
Truckstop operators say this planned phase-in would result in unrecoverable costs in building separate tanks and pumps for two fuels. NATSO supports the EPA’s low-sulfur rule but argues the agency should require all on-highway diesels to meet the lower sulfur standard by 2006. The association says the added cost of the phase-in program – estimated to be as much as $100,000 per location for some operators – would force many truckstops out of business and result in tighter fuel supplies and higher prices for truckers.
NATSO President and Chief Executive Officer Dewey W. Clower said members of Congress were receptive to the association’s message on the phase-in plan. “Democrats and Republicans alike expressed concern for the enormous costs (required) to market two grades of diesel fuel,” Clower said in a statement released following the conference. “We are confident Congress will strongly support legislation developed by NATSO and the Petroleum Marketers Association of America to correct the burdensome phase-in plan.”
Shortly after the conference, a bill was introduced in the House that would strike the phase-in provision and switch all diesel to the low-sulfur variety by 2006.
NATSO also lobbied Congress on two fairness issues regarding federal fuel and excise taxes. Last year, in a case brought by a Michigan duty-free shop, a federal court ruled that U.S. Customs’ rules that prohibit duty-free shops along the nation’s northern and southern borders from selling duty-free gasoline and diesel were invalid. The court said that if Congress had intended to prevent duty-free shops from selling those items, it would have listed them in the federal statute governing such sales.
Truckstop operators claim this duty-free shop is selling diesel fuel cheaper than they can buy it at the terminal rack where the taxes are levied; an unfair trade situation.
