The home heating oil industry has a long and proud history, and Fuel Oil News has been there supporting it since 1935. It is an industry that has faced many challenges during that time. In its 77th year, Fuel Oil News is doing more than just holding
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NEWS & T RE ND S ICPA/OHIRI Joint Meeting Review The Independent Connecticut Petroleum Association and the Oil Heat Institute of Rhode Island held a joint annual meeting at the MGM Grand Hotel at Foxwoods in Connecticut on Sept. 13, 2012. This is perhaps the first time two petroleum marketer associations in New England have held such a joint annual meeting. Some 215 people from Connecticut and Rhode Island attended the event, supported by more than 20 of the two state's suppliers of petroleum products and other industry services. Julie Gill, executive director/CEO and Gene Guilford, presi- dent of the ICPA wanted to offer programs that focused on addressing their respective membership's most pressing prob- lems—most of which are shared among marketers regardless of which state they are in such as the financial management and evaluation of a heating oil company to its service department to Bioheat promotion and sales. Rhode Island had a special program with a state legislator about the future of petroleum in the state, while Guilford opened the day's session with a "rous- ing oration" on the state of Connecticut's new energy plan that heavily focuses on using natural gas—in a program sandwiched with a gospel choir to arouse the crowd. In addition to addressing pressing management and finan- cial issues, the day also offered programs teaching the benefits of diversifying a typical retailer beyond heating oil and HVAC work to new things most in demand from consumers. Both Connecticut and Rhode Island can offer members the opportu- nity to sell electricity to residential and commercial customers, and sell natural gas to commercial and industrial customers. Both Connecticut and Rhode Island can expand the typical HVAC shop into seeing the whole home as a single energy unit—providing energy conservation services beyond the HVAC system to the entire home. This is an important step for the retailers as both states' governments' offer consumers financial incentives to do whole-home energy conservation work that retailers can become involved with. This being an election year, the program's luncheon speaker was Rayola Dougher, senior economic advisor, American Petroleum Institute, who introduced the API program "Vote4Energy." Vote4Energy focuses the nation's attention on the importance of our federal government's decisions with respect to national energy policy, where that federal policy making is helping or hurting the nation's consumers and how federal policies can become more beneficial to the nation's consumers, the nation's economy and to America's role in the world of energy. 10 OCTOBER 2012 | FUEL OIL NEWS | www.fueloilnews.com Mike Trunzo and Jim Collura from the New England Fuel Institute outlined NEFI's work in Washington on a host of federal issues affecting heating oil retailers from energy policy to energy market speculation reforms. The day concluded with a dinner speech by Commodities Futures Trading Commission Commissioner Bart Chilton who gave both groups a well presented outlook on how the CFTC has progressed, and is progressing, on the issues affect- ing the energy industry from position limits regulation under Dodd-Frank and the Volker Rule that will affect commercial and investment banking. Chilton covered the events of the 2007/08 financial crisis in detail including the events that both led up to the crisis as well as the government's responses to that crisis since. He singled out PMAA, NEFI, ICPA and OHIRI as the types of associations whose dogged efforts pushed first the Congress, and now the CFTC and SEC, to get the job done in bringing sanity and order to the financial system of the nation and its energy trading markets. After Chilton the groups had a chance to give special thanks to some special people who have gone above and beyond the call in service to their industries. Ms. Jamie Lohr of Guardian Fuel in Westerly, RI was given the award of Marketer of the Year, cited for her outstanding work in the RI legislature on clean heating oil. Paul Nazzaro of the National Biodiesel Board was given the Associate Member of the Year award, cited for his tireless and continuing efforts to help heating oil marketers become BioHeat retailers and upgrade their "green" image. Paul McCullough, at attorney from Stamford, Conn. and former chair of the Connecticut Underground Store Tank Board, was given the "TR" award, reflecting Teddy Roosevelt's admonition to people to get into the arena and fight and its only those people who have fought who know the value of vic- tory. McCullough was fired by Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy for doing his job—processing and approving claims from marketers to the UST fund—that Malloy was trying to shut down. He stood his ground, led his board to do their statutorily-required duties and ignored political pressure from the governor. For a program that started at 10am and ended at 9.30pm, these two groups managed to pull off a tremendous program for the benefit of a great many people on both sides of the border between CT and RI. Both associations have commit- ted to doing this again and making it bigger and better every time they try!