Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/464194
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reduce the compliance requirements
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including legal action.
Potential New Ozone Standards
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be over the Obama Administration's
newly proposed tightening of ozone
standards. In particular, the Senate
Republican leadership plans an all-
out attack via Senator John Thune's
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process and the Congressional
Review Act. Senator Thune's bill,
known as "The Clean Air, Strong
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block the EPA from revising its ozone
standard downward until 85 percent
of the current non-attainment counties
comply with the current standard.
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companion legislation in the House
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hundreds of other business groups,
has urged EPA not to revise the
standard. If the standard is lowered,
it would force more counties into non-
attainment, and therefore, require
RFG and lower RVP gasoline which
would increase the cost of motor fuels.
By EPA's own estimates, the new
regulations would cost taxpayers up to
$90 billion per year, making them the
most costly regulations ever proposed.
Worse still, according to the National
Association of Manufacturers, the
proposed rule will cost over one trillion
dollars per year from 2020-2030. If
EPA succeeds in adopting this new
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negative consequence for gasoline
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Interchange Fees Credit Cards
A proposed settlement of longstanding
antitrust litigation between retailers
and the credit card industry was
reached to address Visa and
MasterCard's anticompetitive
interchange fee practices. As
expected, Federal Judge John
Gleeson approved the proposed
settlement in the interchange fee
class action litigation against Visa
and MasterCard. A dozen plaintiffs
appealed the decision which could
delay the settlement for another
year or so because it offers money
damages of only about two months'
worth of interchange fees paid by
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surcharging rules, and most notably,
prevents retailers from challenging
anti-competitive interchange fees in
the future. The decision by Judge
Gleeson is important, but it is only
one more step in a long process.
Petroleum marketers need not take
any action as a result of this decision.
Everyone involved must wait for the
appeals process to conclude.
Meanwhile, American Express Co.
agreed to pay as much as $75 million
and alter some of its merchant rules
to settle two class-action suits similar
to the Visa MasterCard litigation. The
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opposes the settlement because it
does nothing to bring competition and
transparency to American Express
Co.'s interchange pricing policies.
The settlement terms still have to be
approved by the Court.
Debit Cards
During the summer of 2013, U.S.
District Court Judge Richard Leon
tossed the Federal Reserve's 2011
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fees and sided with retailers'
arguments that the Fed's cap on the
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Durbin amendment's intent to ensure
that swipe fees are "reasonable and
proportional" to the cost of processing
a debit transaction. Unfortunately,
the DC appeals court overturned
the favorable decision from Judge
Leon's court on March 21st. The
decision to overturn Judge Leon's
ruling is a huge disappointment for the
retailer community. The Merchants
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take the issue to the Supreme Court.
In December 2014, the 28-nation
European Union reached an initial
agreement that fees charged to
merchants for accepting consumer
card payments will be limited to 0.2
percent for debit and 0.3 percent for
credit. In addition, member states may
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cent cap. The agreement will not apply
to one bank only cards such as Diners
and American Express or for cards
used only for business expenses.
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agreement is made, the new fee caps
will apply six months later.
Keystone XL Pipeline
Incoming Senate Majority Leader
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