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August 10, 2012 Here's what you'll find in this edition: CLASSIFIEDS! NEWS AROUND THE STATE TRAINING CLASS SCHEDULE MEET THE FOLKS AT LIBERTY GAS MEMBER BENEFIT PARTNER MESSAGE A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM BELLOMO FUELS POLITICAL PARTICIPATON: THE NJGCA PAC
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE: GREETINGS & SAL-UTATIONS! SUNOCO FOOTSTEPS GETTING LOUDER The drumbeat is getting louder and the footsteps are getting closer for Sunoco to join the other major oil companies and divest their retail properties. Back in May it was announced that they were being purchased by Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) a company which has historically operated pipelines and had no involvement in the retail market. ETP’s CEO even said when the deal was announced that "we would not have targeted a retail business as a strategic move for the company; however, Sunoco’s retail is part of the overall package [so we have to take it with the rest of the deal]", which didn’t exactly sound like he was very excited about owning Sunoco retail franchise locations. The deal with ETP is expected to close in September, after that there is a good chance things may move quickly. Analysts suspect that Marathon is a leading contender seemingly most interested in purchasing the Sunoco retail sites. When Sunoco first went to their shareholders about the deal with ETP, they brought up the fact that separating off their retail business could generate additional revenue. Prior to this sale, and in fact going back over three years to 2009 when NJGCA was pushing for the passage of Right of First Refusal, I kept saying that Sunoco would be one of the major companies to put their retail locations up for sale. Why? Because it just made sense, it made good business sense, and that’s the sense that’s most important to any corporation. I plan to soon ask all the Sunoco dealers to convene and to discuss this situation so that you can be as prepared as possible for the situation when it happens. Preparation is the best way to guarantee that this shift will bring about your prosperity and not your demise. Let me be honest and frank for a moment (as if I’m ever not). In the past I have let’s say, “politely”, chastised the Sunoco dealers out there. I will not hide the fact that I was and continue to be extremely disappointed that the Sunoco dealers out there did not haul their own weight during our fight for Right of First Refusal. Despite the fact that the potential for their personal gain was HUGE, they left the heavy lifting to the Shell and Exxon dealers. But that’s the way public policy works, once it’s enacted it applies to all the public, not just the ones who helped, as we are all equal under the law in this country. Right now I want to make this effort to help the Sunoco dealers be prepared for their world to get turned upside down, as I have for the Shell and the Exxon dealers before them. Do I know this divestiture will happen for sure? No, but as I said the steps are getting louder and I will make an effort to guide Sunoco dealers. However, because of my past disappointments, I am going to live by this age old adage: you can take a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. I will make my best efforts to lead the Sunoco horses to water, and if they don’t drink, then I guess I may have to consider them another part of the horse. More information to follow. The roller coaster that is the marketplace continues, and as you well know the past few weeks it’s been a steep incline. In the last 5 weeks the average price of gas at the rack has jumped nearly 40 cents per gallon, including a 24 cent jump just in the last 2 weeks! The question being asked is why is it going up like this?! The answer is that the price of crude oil has been rising once again. It seems speculators are feeling better about the prospect of consumers tolerating a higher price in the midst of the summer driving season. What evidence of this claim do I have, you ask? Let me answer a question with a question: how many times in recent months have I said to you that demand was showing a downward trend? In recent weeks the demand trend has been very stable with no drop-off. The nationwide inventories of both crude oil and gasoline have also shown a significant decline. These facts are encouraging to those that speculate in market price, as they are more confident about raising prices to grab more profits. Stable or rising demand and reduced inventory equals higher price. Another factor having a small influence on the price of gas is the huge drought that much of the nation is experiencing. This drought is having an impact on the price for corn, which is slightly pushing up the price for ethanol, which makes up 10 percent of the gasoline sold at retail. Every one of you with an underground storage tank should have received a letter from NJDEP this week titled “Compliance Assistance Alert-Underground Storage Tank Registration Certificates”. If you didn’t receive it, you can view the whole thing by CLICING HERE. The focus of the letter is to remind you of the rule that went into effect on May 7th requiring that a Licensed Site Remediation Professional (LSRP) to be hired to oversee details at all UST sites with ongoing remediation or monitoring. At the very end of the letter though it a small footnote that you may have overlooked, but I wanted to spotlight to you because it is very important that you see it: “Note: Amendments to N.J.A.C. 7:14B-5.5 of the UST rule require the UST owner or operator to have a Release Response Plan that identifies a Licensed Site Remediation Professional as a contact, among other responders, should a future release occur. The Release Response Plan shall be made available for onsite inspection.” The reason that this section is important is that part of your compliance inspection is having your emergency release response plan available onsite. As part of that plan, you are required to have listed, as of now, an LSRP. This doesn’t mean that you have to actually have a contract with them; you just need to have the contact info for one in your plan. It shows that you have already researched the different LSRPs out there and would know who to call immediately in the event of an emergency. I am working with my staff as this email is being written to create for you a special form that we will send to you that allows you to easily fill in the blanks with the required info for your location that you can keep on hand as part of your Emergency Release Response Plan. If you’re looking for some advice as to whom you should list as your go-to LSRP in the event of a leak, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. There are several LSRPs that NJGCA has worked with over years that we have tremendous confidence and trust in. Once again I’d like to remind all the LUKOIL dealers reading this of the upcoming meeting NJGCA will be hosting on August 16 at the Holiday Inn National Conference Center in East Windsor at 10AM. If you are a Lukoil dealer and did not receive my invitation that means that somehow your mailing address slipped thru the cracks. Please attend and RSVP to us here at NJGCA. We will be discussing the terrible pricing and image conditions you have been suffering and discussing ways that we can move forward as a group to make things better. Finally, a very important and very celebratory update to an issue I discussed in last week’s Road Warrior. Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has officially signed into law the nation’s first ever Right to Repair Law! This is a tremendous victory for independent repair facilities in the Bay State and I am confident that the positive effects of this will ripple out across the nation. The hardest part of this movement was always getting it passed in the first state. Once one state has it, then it becomes easier to implement in other states. There is already talk of working on a federal version of the law to cover the entire nation, and we expect to build on the momentum from Massachusetts to ensure that either through Washington or through Trenton (or maybe both) Right to Repair will at last come to New Jersey. Thanks for listening – See you next week. Regards,
CLASSIFIEDS: FOR SALE & HELP WANTED! After running an ad in the Road Warrior over the last month, NJGCA was able to assist a member in selling his equipment! If you'd like to list equipment for sale, or have an open position you'd like to make other industry professionals aware of, please contact NJGCA at 973-376-0066 and let us help you get the word out!
8/8/2012: 8/7/2012: 8/6/2012: 8/2/2012:
TRAINING CLASSES!! PLEASE NOTE: FUTURE DATES WILL BE ADDED UPON REQUEST AND ACCORDING TO DEMAND. CONTACT DEBBIE at 973-376-0066 or DEBBIE@NJGCA.ORG TO LET HER KNOW YOU ARE INTERESTED IN TAKING A SPECIFIC CLASS. THIS WILL ALLOW US TO GAUGE YOUR NEEDS AND KEEP TRACK OF THOSE WISHING TO PARTICIPATE!!
MEMBER BENEFIT PARTNER MESSAGE TMP Energy Solutions We have had a number of NJGCA members successfully reduce their rate per kWh signing up through our energy saving program. We know it’s difficult to collect 12 months worth of previous electric bills to get an “accurate” analysis when comparing a variable rate to a fixed rate, but we now have another option available. This new solution is a power purchase option; the other program is still in full force and has saved members thousands of dollars. If you sign up for the power purchase option, you will be grouped with other NJGCA members until the minimum KW demand is acquired. By pooling the member’s usage together, you will be able to take advantage, as large energy users do, and receive a lower kWh rate. Each member will receive their own contract. Each member is responsible to sign and return the agreement the day it is received in order to secure the price for their group. Please do your due diligence, so when you receive the proposal and the agreement you will be able to make an intelligent decision. If by chance, you still want us to assess you bills, to give you a price to compare, we will require12 months of your most recent utility bills. There are no bills required, but we would still like to have one bill per meter on file to check account #’s, meter #’s service addresses and other pertinent information incase there is a problem. The term of the agreement is for 12 months. During this term period, you will have price protection against any energy price increases along with a low fixed kWh rate. If you are interested in becoming part of this power purchase option, please contact Greg Cannon at the NJGCA. Remember when you sign up your energy through the NJGCA Energy Program, TMP makes a considerable donation to the NJGCA Scholarship Fund through their proceeds. This has no affect on your rate, and costs you nothing out of pocket. We hope to help hundreds of NJGCA members reduce their utility costs by participating in this and our other cost reduction programs. Our purpose, in the endeavor, is to help NJGCA members lower their energy costs while supporting the NJGCA Scholarship Fund. Contact GREG CANNON at 973-376-0066 or email Greg at greg@njgca.org. Mention that you are interested in saving money on your energy bills. NJGCA & TMP Energy Solutions will handle all the rest.
POLITICAL PARTICIPATON: THE NJGCA PAC
Promoting our agenda in Trenton is of utmost importance to NJGCA and our members. We defeated BELOW COST SELLING We made history in getting FIRST RIGHT OF REFUSAL signed into law! We have built large support for RIGHT TO REPAIR and got it passed out of the Assembly We defended your small business against the false accusations of Attorney General Anne Milgram We gained wide support to move New Jersey to an all PIF Inspection System and close the CIF lanes ...and MUCH MORE!! In each instance, we achieved these goals with the help of our friends in the Legislature! If every member contributes just $100.00 we will be able to provide the help necessary to ensure victory for our allies. PLEASE SEND YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS TO: I understand that times are tough for all NJGCA members, but this is just as important as any battle we have fought in the past. We have made great progress in Trenton. I hope that you will answer the call. ?
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