While Congress was working this week on an economic stimulus package, NACS was working with its partners in the petroleum marketing industry to prevent a regulatory change in the way our members sell motor fuel.

The National Conference on Weights and Measures (NCWM) met in Albuquerque early this week to decide if the issue of automatic temperature compensation should be presented for a vote at the Annual Meeting in July.

Early presentations at this Interim Meeting betrayed a bias towards either permitting or requiring retailers to install the $2,000 per dispenser devices. Several speakers from the conference presented “evidence” regarding fuel temperatures in various regions, which they mistakenly labeled as “markets,” and tried to demonstrate how simple implementing ATC would be.

In the audience were no fewer than 20 marketer representatives from the national organizations like NACS, PMAA, SIGMA and API to numerous state association executives to several actual marketers. Each took his/her turn at the microphone to impress upon the conference that there is no credible evidence that either consumers or retailers would benefit from the expense to install ATC.

Then the California Energy Commission, which is conducting an extensive cost-benefit analysis of ATC as required by a law enacted last year, presented the outline of their research project. Apparently, the parameters of that project, combined with the repeated calls for evidence of consumer benefit from the technology, turned many heads.

The Laws and Regulations Committee voted unanimously that the issue is not ready for a vote at the Annual Conference because there are too many unanswered questions. Clearly, further testimony will be presented at the various meetings of the regional associations and the at the Annual Meeting, but no further action will be taken until the 2009 Interim Meeting next January. It is anticipated the California Energy Commission will be finished with its analysis by the end of 2008.

At the Interim Meeting, the Conference will determine if there is sufficient evidence available for the Conference to make an informed decision. If so, the matter will be elevated to “Voting” status and included as an action item at the 2009 Annual Meeting.

Credit Card Liability
This week also, NACS Senior Vice President of Government Relations Lyle Beckwith issued a call to action for retailers to urge their representatives to cosponsor legislation that will protect retailers from liability associated with credit card receipts.

At issue are hundreds of lawsuits claiming retailers committed a willful violation of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act which required retailers to truncate credit card numbers to the last five digits or delete the expiration date from all printed receipts. The lawsuits claim that those who did not comply with both provisions are violating the law.

NACS is supporting legislation (H.R. 4008) to clarify the definition of willful noncompliance with respect to violations involving the printing of an expiration date on credit and debit card receipts. Retailers should contact their legislators and urge them to cosponsor H.R. 4008. To assist retailers in contacting their legislators, a draft letter has been prepare and is available online.

That is all from Washington. Have a great weekend!

John Eichberger
Vice President, Government Relations