NASHVILLE, Tenn. – There are few who are more colorful or quick-witted than SIGMA counsel Tim Columbus. Not surprising, Columbus's list of legislative stuff is a welcomed feature at the association's annual meeting in Nashville, Tenn.
Columbus told fuel marketers and convenience store operators to watch out for (in no particular order) these five items:
- Breaching my breeches. It has happened to the best of 'em--data security breaches that have hit the likes of Home Depot, Staples and Target, resulting in the theft of personal information from tens of millions of compliant customers.
"I find it surprising retailers are everybody's venom," said Columbus, pivoting blame onto the large financial institutions and credit-card heavyweights Visa and MasterCard.
Big money players are backing the closed-system EMV (Europay, MasterCard & Visa), a proprietary chip-based technology.
Don't fall for it, Columbus warns. "If you don't have an open-standard (technology), you're going to have Visa and MasterCard for the rest of your lives." Instead, SIGMA supports a chip-and-pin, open-standard technology as the favored security solution.
- Not going green. If the mid-term elections did one thing, it shook environmentalists to their trunks. The whammy--replacing one of the Senate's most liberal committee chairs with one of its most conservative.
Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), the feisty lefty, is losing the gavel on the important Environment & Public Works Committee. In her place? None other than James "there's-no-such-thing-as-global-warming" Inhofe (R-Okla.).
Said Columbus: "That's going from one end of the spectrum to the other." No kidding!
- Get off the road. It's no secret our nation's infrastructure--roads, bridges, tunnels--are cracking, crumbling and buckling. And the federal highway fund is rapidly running out of fuel. Whence the funding? Bipartisan efforts to raise the federal gasoline excise tax, a measure supported by SIGMA, NATSO and others, has fossilized.
Some states are taking matters into their own hands. Oregon has piloted an infrastructure tax based on vehicular miles traveled, one that critics say disproportionately punishes fuel and other long haulers. Putting it mildly, said Columbus, "We need to think of alternatives."
- Vaping sweets. While the FDA has approved "deeming" regulations that basically affords the electronic cigarette and vaping sectors significant latitude, the biggest players have adopted a We Card approach that forbids marketing to minors.
But have you tried those yummy Jolly Roger blue raspberry e-liquids? Or the aromatic cinnamon Gummy Bears e-liquid? There's just one problem.
Picture the following scene offered by Columbus of nicotine advocates talking to lawmakers. "When they're talking about Gummy Bears and (saying) we're not really selling to children. …"
- Tax reform in our lifetime? Can't be, can it, Tim? Columbus believes yes. There are some serious tax-reformaholics in Congress, led by No. 1 tax simplifier Paul Ryan (R-Wis.). Columbus said the will may finally be there to reform the tax code because its strongest supporters boast the resolve to shake off enough lobbyists. "Paul Ryan is prepared to do things that are unpopular."
For fuel marketers and retail operators, reform would most likely be a net positive--a "simple system with a lot more predictability." But, Columbus added, there will be fewer hiding places (aka loopholes) to hide money.
Founded as the Society of Independent Gasoline Marketers of America, SIGMA is a national trade association representing fuel marketers and convenience store chain retailers in the United States and Canada. Its approximately 260 corporate members command more than 40% of the petroleum retail market, selling approximately 75 billion gallons of motor fuel each year.
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