Article
The Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce
March 13, 2003
Introduction
Good morning, Mr. Chairman and members of the Subcommittee. My name is Bill Douglass. I am Chief Executive Officer of Douglass Distributing Company, Inc., headquartered in Sherman, Texas. Our company operates 10 convenience stores and a distributorship that sells gasoline and diesel fuel in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
I sincerely appreciate the invitation to present testimony before you this morning on the issue of national energy policy legislation and motor fuels. I appear this morning on behalf of the National Association of Convenience Stores ("NACS") and the Society of Independent Gasoline Marketers of America ("SIGMA").
The Associations
NACS is an international trade association comprised of more than 1,700 retail member companies operating more than 100,000 stores. The convenience store industry as a whole sold 124.4 billion gallons of motor fuel in 2001 and employs 1.4 million workers across the nation.
SIGMA is an association of more than 270 independent gasoline marketers operating in all 50 states. Last year, SIGMA members sold more than 48 billion gallons of motor fuel, representing more than 30 percent of all motor fuels sold in the United States in 2002. SIGMA members supply more than 28,000 retail outlets across the nation and employ more than 270,000 workers nationwide.
Focus on Motorists
My testimony this morning will focus on one simple message. As this Subcommittee, and this Congress, debates national motor fuel policy, NACS and SIGMA urge you to consider the impact this legislation will have on our members' customers -- your constituents.
The average motorist does not know or care whether gasoline contains MTBE or ethanol; they simply want competitively-priced gasoline and diesel fuel to power their automobiles and trucks. In general, motorists favor environmentally-friendly fuels, and favor strong environmental protections to assure that the use of motor fuels does not harm air quality and does not pollute our nation's water supplies.
These motorists' interests are closely matched by the interest of independent motor fuel marketers, like myself. My company sells motor fuels, but we do not make either the gasoline or the diesel fuel we sell. Consequently, from a business perspective, I have little interest in what my refiner-supplier puts into these products, be it ethanol or MTBE. My primary concern is supply. My customers, and therefore my company, benefit from plentiful supplies of gasoline and diesel fuel from diverse sources, thereby assuring a competitive marketplace for motor fuel. Furthermore, like our customers, we also support the production of motor fuels that do not harm air quality and the strong and effective enforcement of regulations to prevent petroleum releases from underground storage tanks. We support these issues for the benefit of our communities as well as for the benefit of our business.
Therefore, as you consider a fuels title to national energy policy legislation this year, I strongly urge you to keep in mind the interests of your constituents, and our customers, the motoring public. NACS and SIGMA believe that this Subcommittee will have served its constituents well if it puts aside special interest pressures and instead develops energy policy legislation that focuses on expan