CROMWELL, Conn. -- Eugene A. Guilford Jr., the executive director of the Independent Connecticut Petroleum Association (ICPA), has provided the following update on the issue of zone pricing in Connecticut:
On March 8, 2007, State Representatives John Mazurek (D) and William Tong (D) tried to get the Energy Committee to adopt an amendment banning zone pricing in Connecticut passed on the governor's energy bill. The bill was defeated along with what Mazurek and Tong tried to do.
On March 13, 2007, the General Law Committee voted [image-nocss] on H.B. 1136, An Act Concerning Gasoline Zone Pricing. This bill included a zone pricing ban and the discount language that would require refiners to apply discounts equally to all gasoline sellers no matter how many gallons they sell. Section two of the bill prohibits replacement cost pricing, eliminating the ability to increase the price of gasoline when prices are rising. This bill was defeated in committee.
Having failed to get anything out of committee, State Senator Thomas Colapietro (D) vowed to amend every bill coming through the Senate with a zone pricing ban. He did the same thing last year. Last year the ban on zone pricing passed the Senate 24-6. This year the Senate deadlocked 18-18 on a bill Colapietro amended with a zone pricing ban and the tie was broken by the Lieutenant Governor Michael Fedele. Zone pricing has lost support in the Senate as we picked up a net of 12 votes against. Last year the bill died in the House. This year the bill was referred to the Appropriations Committee long enough to pass other bills without being amended and then it will die their as the session ends on Wednesday.
The Hartford Courant, The Connecticut Post, The Waterbury Republican-American and The New Haven Register all issued editorials opposing the ban on zone pricing. This had never happened before this year, so again clearly the effort to ban zone pricing is losing steam in Connecticut, and this year marks the ninth year in which the effort has died.
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