• Wecome, Wallis Oil Company!
• PSTD Updated Guidance Documents
• Rural Development Now Accepting Rural Energy for America Program Grant Applications - Deadline March 31, 2023
• Regulatory Alert - Multi-State Hours of Service Waiver Issued for Gasoline, Diesel and Jet Fuel
• SBLC Webinar on Federal Efforts to Ban or Limit the Use of Employee Non-Compete Agreements
• EMA Washington Conference and Day of the Hill - Register Now
• DOL Issues Guidance on Teleworking Breaks
• EMA Files Comments on RFS Proposed Rule
• HHS Releases $1 Billion in Supplemental LIHEAP Funding for Fiscal Year 2023
• OSDH Launches a New Campaign Aimed to Provide Education About Tobacco Sales in the Sate - Validate OK
• Federated Insurance - February 2023 Educational Articles
• Federated Insurance - Rick Management Academy

Welcome to OPMCA - Wallis Oil Company!

Wallis Oil Company

David Anthes

106 East Washington

Cuba, MO 65453-1827

Phone: (573) 885-2277

(800) 467-6652

Fax: (636) 549-1506

Email: dave.anthes@wallisco.com

www.wallisco.com

Petroleum Storage Tank Division Updated Guidance Documents

The Petroleum Storage Tank Division (PSTD) staff recently updated several Compliance and Technical guidance documents. The guidance documents include:

• AST Closure Sampling Requirements
• UST Closure Sampling Requirements
• Field Guidelines for Corrective Actions
• Field Notifications
• Overnight and Weekend Work Guidance

These guidance documents are posted on the Oklahoma Corporation Commission website at PSTD’s Forms and Guidance page.

If you have questions or would like to speak to PST staff regarding the guidance documents, please contact PSTD at (405) 521-4683.



Thank you,

Petroleum Storage Tank Division

Regulatory Alert - Multi-State Hours of Service Waiver Issued for Gasoline, Diesel and Jet Fuel

Today, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) issued a multistate Hours of Service waiver for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel through March 17, 2023, for the following states due to an unanticipated shutdown of the Suncor refinery in Colorado: Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming.

The emergency declaration applies to all states and jurisdictions listed above. This waiver covers all fuel deliveries in the states and jurisdictions listed because they support the "emergency," which in this case, is maintaining adequate fuel distribution in those areas.

Important: The FMCSA waiver covers interstate shipment of fuel in and out of the states and jurisdictions listed in the waiver letter. The FMCSA waiver does not cover intrastate only shipments (deliveries that stay within the boundaries of a single state). State governors must issue waivers for intrastate shipments within their boundaries. State Governors typically issue such waivers as part of their Emergency Declaration, or when FMCSA waivers are put into effect. Some of these states have already issued intrastate HOS waivers. Click here to read the notice and here for questions regarding the waiver.



The Energy Marketers of America will continue to work closely with the FMCSA, DOE, DHS/FEMA and other federal agencies to ensure emergency preparedness and response waivers and solutions to problems that arise in response to the Suncor refinery outage.

SBLC Webinar on Federal Efforts to Ban or Limit the Use of Employee Non-Compete Agreements

The Small Business Legislative Counsel (SBLC) will host a webinar on Thursday, March 2 at 1:00pm EST. In this webinar, SBLC Strategic Policy Director and Paley Rothman employment law attorney Jessica Summers will discuss recent state and federal efforts to ban or limit the use of employee non-compete agreements and other restrictive covenants, what businesses should consider before entering these types of agreements with their employees and how small businesses can continue to protect their interest and information in light of the growing push back against non-competes.

This live webinar will be open to all EMA state associations and its members, free of charge. When registering, please tell your members to type “EMA” at the bottom of the registration page when asked: What association invited you? After registering, you will receive a confirmation e-mail containing information about joining the webinar.

Space is limited and available on a first come first serve basis, but we will be recording the webinar and a copy will be made available to any overflow registrants.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER NOW!

EMA Washington Conference and Day on the Hill – May 10-12, 2023: Please Make Your Hotel Reservation and Register Now

EMA’s annual Washington Conference and Day on the Hill will be held in Washington, DC from May 10-12 at The Mayflower Hotel. Our industry continues to have dozens of important legislative and regulatory issues to discuss and the Day on the Hill remains the primary focus of this conference for you to meet with your members of Congress and network with other marketers from across the country!

You can find all conference details by CLICKING HERE from how to make your hotel reservations, to viewing the conference schedule and registering with secure event payment processing. Registrations must be received by April 28 to be included in our hotel guarantee.

DOL Issues Guidance on Teleworking Breaks

The Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division earlier this month issued a field assistance bulletin (FAB) addressing “Telework Under the Fair Labor Standards Act and Family and Medical Leave Act.” The FAB does not have the force of law; however, it may be relied upon by courts that find it persuasive.

The FAB addresses the following issues relating to teleworking employees:

• At-home breaks. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires covered employers to pay nonexempt employees for all hours worked, including work performed in their home or otherwise away from the employer’s premises or job site. When it comes to breaks taken during the workday, the FLSA says that short breaks of 20 minutes or less are generally counted as compensable hours worked. The FAB explains that this principle applies regardless of an employee’s work location. However, breaks that are 20 minutes or more during which employees are completely relieved of their duties, as well meal breaks of 30 minutes or more, are not counted as hours worked when teleworking.
• Nursing employees. The FAB says that the FLSA’s requirements that covered employees be provided with a “reasonable break time” and place (other than a bathroom) to express breast milk also applies when the employee is working remotely from home or another worksite. The FAB adds that employers are not required to compensate employees for breaks taken to express milk, unless the employer generally provides compensated breaks.
• Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). For FMLA eligibility purposes, an employee must be employed at a worksite where 50 or more employees are employed by the employer within 75 miles of that worksite. Under the FMLA, an employee’s personal residence is not considered a worksite. The FAB explains that, when an employee works from home or other remote location, their worksite for FMLA eligibility purposes is the office to which they report or from which their assignments are made.

Based on the above, the FAB does not change employers’ obligations under the FLSA to compensate employees for all hours worked, including all remotely performed work. The failure to abide by these obligations can result in significant damages, including unpaid wages, liquidated damages, and attorneys’ fees.

A takeaway from the FAB is that employers need to exercise reasonable diligence to track teleworkers’ work hours. Employers should provide employees with a procedure to report hours worked, including those that were not scheduled or those that were worked during “off hours.” 

EMA Files Comments on RFS Proposed Rule

Recently, the Energy Marketers of America (EMA) filed comments on EPA’s Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) proposed renewable volume obligations (RVOs) and percentage standards for 2023, 2024, and 2025, as well as a series of modifications to expand the RFS program. Specifically, EMA highlighted the challenges higher ethanol blend requirements could have on existing underground storage tank systems. EMA called for a reduction to the proposed corn ethanol volume mandate while acknowledging its support for a permanent E15 year-round fix provided Congress appropriates over $1 billion for small to medium sized companies to make UST system compatibility upgrades.

Meanwhile, EMA argued that EPA’s proposed biomass-based diesel and overall advanced biofuel volumes through 2025 are not consistent with the industry’s projected growth, or with the Administration’s own goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. EMA supported an increase in RVOs for biomass-based diesel and overall advanced biofuel volumes given that there is room for growth in that segment. Renewable diesel fuel is the game changer for the energy marketing industry because it has the same ASTM specifications as diesel fuel and can be used in existing USTs. Additionally, the EPA’s proposal limits separation of RINs assigned to biodiesel blended into diesel fuel at a content of 20 percent or less. EMA confirmed with the Office of Air and Radiation in writing that the 20 percent blend concentration limit does not apply to designated heating oil blended with biodiesel. Still, EMA requested the agency provide clarifying language in the final rule highlighting that fuel designated as heating oil is not subject to the 20 percent blend concentration limitation, including transportation diesel fuel redesignated as heating oil and subsequently blended with biodiesel.

EMA opposed the agency’s eRIN proposal which would allow automakers to generate eRINs based on the EVs they sell by establishing contracts with parties that produce electricity from qualifying biogas. EMA argued that the EPA lacks the authority to implement the proposed eRIN credit for renewable electricity because it is inconsistent with the statutory purpose of the RFS, which is to support the production of renewable fuels, not the production and sale of certain vehicle technologies that eRINS are designed to promote. Making automakers RIN generators is a clear attempt to siphon capital away from clean green biofuels to electric vehicles. Click here to read the comments.

HHS Releases $1 Billion in Supplemental LIHEAP Funding for Fiscal Year 2023

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Division of Energy Assistance (DEA), announced this week that it is releasing $1 billion in state block grants for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) for fiscal year 2023. Congress appropriated these funds under the Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2023, which Congress included with the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 and signed it into law on December 29, 2022, by President Biden.

The $1 billion supplemental LIHEAP funding is separate and distinct from the prior two supplemental LIHEAP funding releases for fiscal year 2023; the $100 million in supplemental funds from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the $1 billion in supplemental funds from the Continuing Appropriations Act of 2023 that were released on November 4, 2022. Additionally, HHS anticipates there will be one more release for fiscal year 2023 from reallotment funds from monies returned to HHS in FY 2022.

Thus far, HHS has released a total of $5.5 billion in LIHEAP block grants for fiscal year 2023, significantly more than the $3.8 billion awarded for all of fiscal year 2022. EMA fully supports LIHEAP and continuously urged Congress for supplemental LIHEAP funding last year.

Federated Insurance - February 2023 Educational Articles

Attached are links to articles provided by Federated Insurance:

Risk Management Corner tackles subjects related to workplace safety

Could Employee Turnover Impact Your Business in 2023? (federatedinsurance.com)

HR Question of the Month provides a human resources-related question and answer from independent legal professionals

Helpful HR Advice for Employers | Federated Insurance

It’s Your Life discusses concepts related to life and disability income insurance

Triple Protection Plan | Employee Retention | Life Insurance (federatedinsurance.com)