IN THIS ISSUE... Advertising Rates 2 Emergency Spill Bucket Kits 2 CCAC Emission and State Inspection Classes 4 A $9.50 Minimum Wage by 2022? 7 Important Notice to all Members of PRARA Who own Fuel Storage Tanks 8 Ken Bach for the 58th District 9 IRS Issues Hefty Fines for Failure to Display Dyed Fuel Dispenser Labels 10 Be Aware! Pro-Islamic State Target Gas Stations, Petroleum Trucks, Pipelines for Attacks 11 SSDA-AT Legislative Update 13 Classifieds 14 Member to Member Services 14-15 PRARA NEWS ESTABLISHED 1937 December 2019 2019 OFFICERS PRESIDENT Dennis Budzyneski 1ST VICE PRESIDENT 2ND VICE PRESIDENT Gauttam Patel SECRETARY Kevin Forsythe TREASURER John Listak BOARD OF DIRECTORS Jasbir Bhangal Jeff Decker Dinesh Mittal OFFICE STAFF Office Manager Tammy Combs Secretary Clara Peters 82 YEARS OF SERVICE TO PETROLEUM RETAILERS AND AUTO REPAIR DEALERS IN PENNSYLVANIA Monthly Columns President’s Page 3 Articles of Interest
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PRARA NEWS December 2019
IN THIS ISSUE...
Advertising Rates 2 Emergency Spill Bucket Kits 2
CCAC Emission and State Inspection Classes 4
A $9.50 Minimum Wage by 2022? 7
Important Notice to all Members of PRARA
Who own Fuel Storage Tanks 8
Ken Bach for the 58th District 9
IRS Issues Hefty Fines for Failure to
Display Dyed Fuel Dispenser Labels 10
Be Aware! Pro-Islamic State Target Gas Stations,
Petroleum Trucks, Pipelines for Attacks 11
SSDA-AT Legislative Update 13
Classifieds 14
Member to Member Services 14-15
PRARA NEWS ESTABLISHED 1937 December 2019
2019 OFFICERS PRESIDENT
Dennis Budzyneski
1ST VICE PRESIDENT
2ND VICE PRESIDENT
Gauttam Patel
SECRETARY
Kevin Forsythe
TREASURER
John Listak
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Jasbir Bhangal Jeff Decker
Dinesh Mittal
OFFICE STAFF
Office Manager Tammy Combs
Secretary Clara Peters
82 YEARS OF SERVICE TO PETROLEUM RETAILERS AND AUTO REPAIR DEALERS IN PENNSYLVANIA
Pennsylbania Petroleum Association November 25, 2019
For the first time in more than a decade, a Pennsylvania legislative chamber has
voted to increase the state’s minimum wage — this time from the federal mini-mum of $7.25 an hour to $9.50.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Christine M. Tartaglione, D-
Philadelphia, passed 42-7. Every Democrat and the majority of Republicans supported the bill. All seven “No” votes came from central Pennsylvania Repub-
licans.
“Any increase is a step in the right direction,” Tartaglione said during floor debate, adding: “But as we look to the future, much, much, much, more must be
done.”
The increase will not take place overnight. The wage will increase to $8 an hour on July 1, 2020, and then gradually increase to $9.50 by January 1,
2022.
The increase also will not apply to tipped workers, such as wait staff at restaurants.
Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, made an increase a key priority of his second
term. He found traction with business groups hoping to forestall an overtime regulation, and with the Senate’s Republican majority, who’ve shown a greater
willingness to play ball Wolf.
“The hard part isn’t the actual negotiations,” Senate Majority Leader Jake Cor-man, R-Centre, said of the compromise. “The hard part is then, after you do
have an agreement…saying ‘this is what we agreed to.'”
“Everyone thinks you should have got more.” The $9.50 compromise approved Wednesday falls short of the hike that Wolf
had originally sought. He spent months pushing for an initial increase to $12 an hour that would rise to $15 an hour by 2025.
Wolf meanwhile will hold off on a rule to expand overtime eligibil-
ity that would have bumped up take-home pay for tens of thousands of low-level managers.
The state’s overtime regulations will now match federal rules, which
are increasing, but less dramatically than Wolf proposed. House Republicans have yet to indicate that they’d support the wage hike, how-
ever.
The caucus has some moderate members, especially from the Phila-delphia suburbs, who’d support an increase and like to see the long-running
debate ended. But ideological opposition also runs deep with more conservative
lawmakers. The earliest the proposal could get a final House vote will be next
month.House Democrats cautioned after the Senate vote that for minimum wage
supporters, the fight was still just beginning. “There’s no time to rest,” Rep. Patty Kim, D-Dauphin, said. “There’s no commitment that the House will pass
this, so we gotta go hard.”
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Stan Saylor, R-York, told the Capital-Star that Republicans would likely discuss the matter Thursday.
As of right now, Saylor said the increase could be approved, but Republicans
would want to see more pro-business wins in return before signing off. He added that the current deal, in which Wolf agreed to withdraw the
overtime regulations, seemed like “being blackmailed by the governor.” Democ-
rats have mostly presented a united front supporting any bump in the minimum wage, citing the good to many of a $2.25 raise.
According to estimates from the progressive Economic Policy Institute, the
increase will impact 609,000 workers directly and indirectly, and increase in-comes by nearly $500 million.
But unions had expressed some disappointment that Wolf didn’t
negotiate for more. One top priority, cited by Pennsylvania AFL-CIO chief Rick Bloom-
ingdale, was ending the state’s preemption of municipalities passing their own
minimum wage hikes. Such a measure was added to the last bill minimum wage increase to pass the General Assembly in 2006.
Others have placed the blame squarely on the Republican majorities Wolf was negotiating with — and promised to take further action if Democrats
win a legislative majority in 2020.
“Should it pass, this deal cannot be an excuse for the General Assem-bly to go another 13 years without lifting wages for Pennsylvanians,” the state
council of the Service Employees International Union said in a statement this
week. “We know that the only way to achieve victory is to elect a legislature that stands on the side of working people.”
A $9.50 minimum wage by 2022? The Pa. Senate just passed it. Now it’s up to the House.
Important notice to all members of PRARA who own fuel storage tanks. Hopefully all of our members have been alerted to the new regulations being enforced by the DEP.
Tank owners now must have their leak detection compliance results from a third party back within the month
of monitoring. Said another way a definitive result of pass or fail that identifies the tanks leak status is required
within the 30 day monitoring period. Of course our current way of doing SIR is impossible to accomplish this
requirement.
The EPA has changed requirements for SIR reporting Federal Resister/Vol 80 No.135 Wednesday, July 15,
2015/ Rules and Regulations . DEP is now enforcing this law.
We at PRARA have been seeking and have found a supplier of SIR reports that satisfy the above Regs. one
way to accomplish this goal is to do two reports per month which obviously is more labor intense and will be
more costly. We have entered into an agreement with TotalSIR of North Carolina to satisfy DEP and only do
the process once monthly. Better yet the cost to our members will remain the same.
Changes: PRARA members will be doing business with TotalSIR directly and entering your data on their
website (we have looked at it and found it to be easy and intuitive to use). To get set up members will simply
call TotalSIR at 800-533-2481 IDENTIFY yourself as a PRARA member to receive the discounted pricing.
They will assist us in making the transition.
If circumstances are such that you cannot comply with the web based system there are alternatives at a higher
cost. Of course, we at PRARA will help in any way with this change for our members . Don`t hesitate to call
the office 412-241-2380. We look forward to making this change as easy as possible.
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PRARA NEWS December 2019
Hello PRARA Members,
My name is Ken Bach. 12 years ago, I left the board of PRARA which I had been on for 10
years to become a school board member at Yough School District. During that time, I have
worked within the system in place to help the students at Yough in a fiscally responsible man-
ner. Well this current system has become ever increasingly difficult to be successful in. The
teacher pension plan has and continues to put such a stress on the funding for public schools
that someone needs to do something about it. My state representative Justin Walsh ran for
Judge and won so there will now be a special election for his seat. I am running for this seat.
Reducing the funding if not eliminating the funding of schools from property taxes and finding
a solution to the pension system that doesn’t include massive payments to it from taxpayers is
my main agenda. With that said I also have a strong understanding of the issues we face as
Auto repair shop owners and our friends the petroleum retailers. I ask for your support in this
pursuit and promise to listen and help on issues that affect our industries as Representative of
the 58th District if successful. Funding for my campaign is at a grass roots level so I need word
of mouth support. Please talk to your friends and family over the holidays and ask them to
give me their support.
Ken Bach
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PRARA NEWS December 2019
IRS Issues Hefty Fines For Failure To Display Dyed Fuel Dispenser Labels
Pennsylvania Petroleum Association November 18, 2019
PMAA is continuing to receive calls about ongoing IRS enforcement of dispenser labeling requirements.
The IRS requires all dyed diesel and dyed kerosene dispensers to have a specific label indicating that the
fuel is for nontaxable use only. The labeling requirement has been in place for diesel and dyed diesel dispensers
since 1993 and for dyed and clear kerosene dispensers since 1998.
The IRS has recently stepped up enforcement of the dispenser label requirements. Some petroleum mar-
keters are under the mistaken belief that the EPA’s LSD and ULSD dispenser labels – which also provide notice
on nontaxable uses of these fuels – are a replacement for the IRS labels.
This is incorrect. Both the IRS and EPA labels are required despite their apparent redundancy.
The following IRS labels must be posted on any retail dispenser or other delivery facility (skid tank, consumer
dispensers at bulk plants or card locks) where dyed diesel fuel and/or dyed kerosene are dispensed for use by a
purchaser/consumer:
“DYED DIESEL FUEL, NONTAXABLE USE ONLY, PENALTY FOR TAXABLE USE” or,
“DYED KEROSENE, NONTAXABLE USE ONLY, PENA+LTY FOR TAXABLE USE”.
In addition, the following label must be posted on all blocked pumps that sell clear, untaxed kerosene:
“UNDYED UNTAXED KEROSENE, NONTAXABLE USE ONLY”.
The labels must be affixed to the dispenser in a conspicuous place within easy sight of the person dis-
pensing the fuel either on the face of the dispenser (on both sides) or on the side of the dispenser just above the
nozzle housing.
11
PRARA NEWS December 2019
Pennsylvania Petroleum Association
November 26, 2019
Provided for your situational awareness from the U.S. Depart-
ment of Transportation,here is a graphic produced by the Pro-
Islamic State Al-Quraysh Media Foundation titled “Gas Sta-
tion Plan Less and New Target.”
This graphic appears to be an attempt by the group to incite
attacks against gas stations, oil pipelines, and oil/gas transport
trucks.
DOT analysis found that the attack methods proposed would
lend to the assessment that the group doesn’t fully understand
the ecosystem in which they suggest targeting– or they were
just throwing out random ideas to “see what may stick.”
Further, no picture within this graphic appears to be inher-
ently American and all images are easily accessed via the
internet, indicating no pre-operational surveillance was con-
ducted before suggesting any attack method.
Methods of attack mentioned:
— “Target oil and gas transport trucks with accidental
accident that causes the truck to overturn” (DOT analytical
comment: trucking crashes involving heavy vehicles carrying
petroleum products happen every day – and very rarely have
they ever exploded upon impact with another vehicle or ob-
ject.)
— “Target gas stations by throwing a cigarette to look like
an accident” (DOT comment: A cigarette has the potential to
light a pool of gasoline but doesn’t have enough sustained
heat. Gasoline ignites between 500 °F and 540 °F, a cigarette
at its hottest is between 450 °F and 500 °F but only when it
was actually being smoked or ignited. Additionally, the igni-
tion of a whole “gas station” using a cigarette is very improb-
able as fuel tanks are typically below ground and oxygen lev-
els are kept to a minimum).
— “Do a search for the presence of oil pipelines, and burn
them” (DOT comment: due to the heavy materials used in the
construction of an oil pipeline (presumably an above ground
pipeline in this instance), simply “finding it and lighting it on
fire” is not plausible.)
Analysis of the graphic noted the following information on
the pictures used:
— Masked armed combatant (DOT comment: this graphic
has been used in previous publications by Al-Quraysh and
does not appear “tailored” for the attack methods mentioned –
lack of lit cigarette, anything to do with arson, etc.).
— Gas station (DOT comment: the gas station photo is of a
“Bonjour” brand station and was originally published in
2012).
— Oil pipeline valve (DOT comment: the pipeline graphic is
a generic stock graphic).
— Petroleum tanker transport truck (DOT comment: this
is a stock photograph – name of the company on the side of
the truck was not able to be discovered).
PMAA urges everyone to review their security plans and to
remain vigilant.
Be Aware! Pro-Islamic State Targets Gas Stations, Petroleum Trucks, Pipelines For Attacks