Oil spill has hurt stations nationwide
By James Pilcher • August 22, 2010
The signs are everywhere at the green and yellow stations all across town: "Thanks for your support! This BP Station is locally owned and operated!"
Four months after the Gulf oil spill, and 650 miles from the Gulf Coast, local BP gas retailers are still scrambling for every customer and fighting for every gallon. Results are mixed.
"There has been a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths, especially early on," says Dave Wittekind, director of operations for Burlington-based Deters Co., which owns and operates five BP Blue Pantry convenience stores throughout Northern Kentucky. "But in the last few weeks, I feel like the tide has been turning."
By RYAN J. FOLEY (AP) - 3 days ago
MADISON, Wis. - A federal appeals court on Friday reinstated Wisconsin's 71-year-old minimum markup law on gasoline, a decision that could save some jobs but increase the cost of gas.
Siding with an association representing small gas station owners, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the law that requires retailers to sell gas above cost does not encourage illegal price-fixing.
The court lifted an order entered last year that put enforcement of the law on hold after U.S. District Judge Rudolph Randa concluded it violated federal antitrust law and increased the price at the pump by up to 30 cents a gallon.
The appeals court overturned Randa's decision, saying the law does not require gas stations to agree to what price they will charge. Flying J Inc., the nationwide gasoline chain that brought the lawsuit, offered no evidence gas stations "are colluding or manipulating gasoline prices in Wisconsin," the court ruled.
Sep 07, 2010
By Barbara Grondin Francella
CSN
WASHINGTON -- Gasoline marketers are looking ahead to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) authorizing intermediate ethanol blends - - and wondering just how much the decision is going to cost them.
Nearly three years after President George W. Bush signed into law the Energy Independence and Security Act, requiring at least 36 billion gallons of renewable fuel be used by 2022, the convenience store/gas industry is waiting for the EPA to announce how that ambitious goal will be realized -- and hoping it won't mean huge investments in new compatible pumps, tanks and lines.
At issue: If every gallon of gasoline were blended with 10-percent ethanol (E10), the country would consume only 14 billion gallons of renewable fuel. The only solution in sight is to increase the ethanol content. The EPA is considering a request to authorize the use of E15, while ethanol advocates are calling for the immediate approval of E12 and longer-term, even higher ethanol blends (E25, etc.) However, the vast majority of existing equipment is not UL-certified to sell E15 or higher blended fuels.
September 7, 2010 6:33pm
by Sheila McNulty
Two US oil and natural gas industry task forces have come up with more recommendations to the Department of Interior in a bid to have a say on how best practices are achieved following the Macondo well disaster. The American Petroleum Institute, the industry's national trade association, said the recommendations are part of a comprehensive effort by the industry to strengthen all aspects of off-shore safety while continuing to produce energy and create jobs.
The task forces provided more than 50 recommendations, including ways to respond faster and more effectively to a runaway well and to better remove oil from water to block it from the coastline. In May, two other industry groups provided another set of recommendations.
By Michelle Dynes
Wyoming News
CHEYENNE -- Energy representatives say a proposal to raise Wyoming's royalty fees could discourage future oil and gas exploration.
The Wyoming Office of State Lands and Investments proposed raising the maximum amount of state royalties from 16 and two-thirds percent to 18 and three-quarters percent.
It was the most controversial of the proposed state oil and gas lease amendments, but it wasn't the only one that raised objections.
Reuters
08-24-10
Ecuador (Reuters) - A run-down court building that also houses the local casino in this Amazon jungle town is the unlikely venue for the largest environmental damages lawsuit ever tried.
On the first floor, people play for pennies in The Mirage bingo and slot machine parlor. Three stories up, in Sucumbios provincial court, the stakes are $27 billion.
That's what local farmers and indigenous tribes want from U.S. oil giant Chevron Corp to fund cleanup of areas they say were polluted with faulty drilling practices in the 1970s and '80s.
The paint is cracked and peeling in the judge's fourth-storey offices overlooking Lago Agrio, a poor and violent northern Ecuador town near the Colombian border.
Power failures often stop the building's air conditioners, leaving gamblers and court officials to swelter as judge Leonardo Ordonez pours through thousands of pages of evidence. He says a verdict could be reached in 2011 after 18 years of litigation in U.S. and Ecuadorean courts.
As the ruling looms, each side accuses the other of presenting fraudulent evidence while a slew of related legal actions are played out in the United States and Europe.
Reuters
08-24-10
Major oil and gas leaks offshore Britain grew 39 percent last year and serious injuries also rose sharply, the safety watchdog said on Tuesday, warning companies to improve their safety standards.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said provisional figures showed there were 85 significant hydrocarbon releases -- seen as potential precursors to a major incident -- between April 1, 2009 and March 31, 2009, up from 61 the previous year.
There were also 50 major injuries reported in the financial year 2009/10, which ended three weeks before an explosion on a drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico sparked the worst accidental oil spill in history, compared to the average of 42 serious injuries over the previous five years.
The Washington Post
08-23-10
The nation's top oil and gas group has agreed to let the public see dozens of federal offshore drilling rules online for free -- though they'll still have to pay to print them out.
The agreement between the American Petroleum Institute and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement provides a partial fix to a quirk in public disclosure rules when it comes to certain federal regulations. Over several decades, the government has adopted at least 78 API industry standards, word-for-word, in the Federal Register. But to actually obtain the details, citizens had to either purchase them from API or view them in person at either a federal office in Herndon or at the National Archives and Records Administration.
The Colorado Independent
By Andrew Restuccia 8/17/10 8:52 AM
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, the federal agency that oversees the country's 2.3 million miles of oil and natural gas pipelines, has adopted as part of its regulations all or parts of at least 29 standards written by the oil and natural gas industry.
The revelation, which comes to light as part of an investigation into pipeline safety by The Colorado Independent's sister site, The Washington Independent, raises significant questions about the relationship between PHMSA and the industry that it regulates. It also feeds into comparisons between the agency and the now-defunct Minerals Management Service, which was in charge of permitting and licensing offshore drilling projects in the run-up to the April 20 Deepwater Horizon explosion and resulting oil spill.
Aug. 17, 2010 6:48 a.m.
By Jeremy Lydic
EAST LIVERPOOL, Ohio -- The Columbiana County Port Authority is using a $200,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to move forward on redeveloping brownfields.
The port authority was awarded the assessment grant in April to identify possible sites that are contaminated by petroleum. While its application for a $200,000 hazardous sites grant was rejected, the agency is confident it will be able to use the petroleum grant to leverage those monies later. So says Lawrence Drane, a senior project manager and hydrogeologist with Tetra Tech's office in Pittsburgh.
At its monthly meeting Monday evening, the port authority approved a contract with Tetra Tech NUS Inc. for the company to perform environmental assessments of potential brownfield sites in the county.
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