The 109th Congress, which the November elections wrote into the history books, finally closed the door behind itself last week when the House and Senate adjourned for good. The 110th Congress, however, is just around the corner with oath of office ceremonies planned for January 4, 2007, and legislative action beginning immediately. As reported previously, the Democratic leaders in the House and Senate have announced an aggressive agenda for 2007, abandoning the traditional abbreviated work-week of Congress and pressing forward with longer hours and fewer breaks. Therefore, everybody involved in government relations in Washington is taking a deep breath this month and preparing for a very busy 2007.
However, the landscape could potentially change in the near future. This week, Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD) reportedly suffered a stroke and underwent surgery. As of Thursday morning, he was reported to be in critical condition. Clearly, the primary interest of everybody involved is the Senator’s health and NACS hopes for a speedy recovery. Sen. Johnson has been a valuable friend of the convenience and petroleum retailing industry for many years and is an individual with whom NACS expects to have a long-term, cooperative relationship. We wish him well.
That said, if his condition does not improve and if he is unable to return to work, the balance of power in the Senate would likely flip. The governor of South Dakota is a Republican and South Dakota law grants the authority to the governor to name a replacement for the remainder of the term. This would create a 50-50 partisan split in the Senate with Vice President Cheney casting the tie vote. Such a scenario would return majority control to the Republican party, dramatically altering the agenda and creating a major roadblock to Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) efforts to move forward with her agenda. We will let you know what happens.
LUST Developments
In the final hours of the 109th Congress, the House and Senate finalized efforts to authorize the expenditure of money from the Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) Trust Fund to pay for inspections and enforcement activity required by the Energy Policy Act of 2005. This is a very good development. However, it has been followed by a very bad development.
In the effort to fund these reforms, the pending legislation appropriating money to the Environmental Protection Agency and its various programs, had increased funding for the LUST program by a paltry $6 million -- $20 million less than requested by the Administration. This bill was not finalized before adjournment. The new chairmen of the appropriations committees in the House and Senate have announced that, rather than completing work on the pending legislation, they are going to extend a continuing resolution through Fiscal Year (FY) 2007.
The resolution passed this month to keep the government operating at Fiscal Year 2006 levels until mid-February, which was passed to give Congress time to finish its work on spending bills, will now extend until October 2007. For LUST funding, EPA and the states must now rely on funding levels equal to FY2006, which do not include the additional $6 million. Any increase in funding will not be possible until FY2008, which begins in the fourth quarter of 2007.
From an implementation perspective, this is not good news. States are preparing to start their three-year inspection cycles in August 2008 and must make preparations soon to meet that requirement. Without additional funding from the LUST Trust Fund in FY2007, this effort will be significantly hampered, as states will not have sufficient resources.
EPA has released its draft inspection guidelines, however, which present states with a way out of the financial mess. EPA has outlined the parameters by which states can establish third-party inspection programs funded by user fees collected from tank owners. NACS considers this proposal outrageous. Tank owners already pay a user fee in the form of the LUST tax, which has been extended through 2011. Tank owners have contributed more than $2.5 billion into this program and send $190 million to Washington every year. To saddle them with additional fees to cover an unfunded federal mandate is unacceptable. NACS will be making these views known in its comments on EPA’s draft inspection guidelines.
For states that choose to not implement such a program, or are prohibited by state law from assessing such a user fee, the alternative method for addressing a resource shortfall is to close the tank office and return enforcement authority to the EPA. This is likewise a nightmare scenario. EPA itself does not have the resources to oversee the entire UST population and the states are clearly the most qualified to deal with conditions inside their borders, which is why the program was decentralized in the first place.
NACS will continue its efforts to convince Congress to properly fund this program using the resources already collected and active within the system. There is no reason why states should not receive enough federal assistance to comply with these federal mandates. Retailers should contact their representatives and senators and urge them to increase appropriations for the LUST program. State tank offices should make funding for this program a priority in their appropriations request letters to Congress. It is time Congress stood behind their decisions.
Well, that is the end of my rant this week. Have a great weekend.
John Eichberger
Vice President, Government Relations