The OSHA Injury and Illness Compliance Bulletin previously published in the EMA Weekly Review has been revised to include updated requirements for COVID-19 recording. According to OSHA, COVID-19 can be a recordable illness for employers who must comply with Injury and Illness reporting if an employee is infected as a result of performing their work-related duties. Recording a COVID-19 illness does not, of itself, mean that the employer has violated any OSHA standard. Employers are only responsible for recording cases of COVID-19 if all of the following are true:

The revised Compliance Bulletin also reflects OSHA changes to NAICS industry categories that now exempt gasoline stations with convenience stores from OSHA Injury and Illness reporting. Prior to the change, most gasoline stations with convenience stores were already exempt from Injury and Illness requirements under the “primary activity” measurement. Now, all gasoline stations with convenience stores are exempt because they are classified under the general Gasoline Station NAICS category.

The updated Compliance Bulletin can be downloaded here.

The U.S. EPA is set to publish a proposed rule designed to make it easier to sell E15 from E10 certified equipment. The two prong rule addresses dispenser labeling and underground storage tank system compatibility. The first part of the rule seeks public comment on whether to modify, or eliminate altogether, the E15 dispenser warning label. The label warning label is required by the E15 misfueling mitigation rule. The label is designed to warn consumers against dispensing E15 into the fuel tanks of cars manufactured before 2001, boats and other gasoline powered equipment to prevent damage. The E15 warning label also helps protect gasoline retailers from liability for equipment damage due to consumer misfuelling. The second part of the proposed rule is designed to make it easier for UST system owners to demonstrate E15 compatibility for existing equipment. The EPA is proposing to change compatibility requirements so that existing double walled USTs and piping with interstitial monitoring qualify as E15 compatible. However, all other equipment in the UST system must still meet existing compatibility requirements including manufacturer and/or UL E15 certification. Moreover, the proposed rule would require all new UST system installations and or replacement parts be certified to 100 percent ethanol content.

The EMA Motor Fuels Committee and UST Task Force will convene to discuss the proposed rule and formulate a response.  

In December 2020, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) hosted a series of live informational webinars on how to use the agency’s new online Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse. The Clearinghouse is a secure online database that gives employers, the FMCSA, State Driver Licensing Agencies, and State law enforcement personnel real-time information about commercial CDL drivers’ license and commercial learner’s permit (CLP) holders’ drug and alcohol program records. Energy marketers must use the Clearinghouse to perform CDL driver annual drug and alcohol record checks and to record driver drug and alcohol test results, test refusals, violations, return to duty and follow-up testing. The EMA Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse Compliance Bulletin can be downloaded here.

There are separate FMCSA webinars for employers and CDL drivers. The webinars provide detailed instruction on: Clearinghouse registration, using limited and full queries for record searches, uploading drug and alcohol violations and return to duty information, obtaining driver consent, purchasing query credits and common user issues and how to address them.

The webinars are valuable tools to help marketers to integrate mandatory Clearinghouse requirements into existing drug and alcohol programs.

The FMCSA webinar and presentation slides are now available for downloading:

For more information: Contact Mark S. Morgan, EMA Regulatory Counsel at mmorgan@emamerica.org. 

The Small Business Administration (SBA) and the Treasury Department announced this week that the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) reopened to new borrowers and qualifying second time borrowers.

Click here for more information on the Second Draw PPP loans.

EEOC Permits Employers to Mandate COVID Vaccinations to Employees: Now What? With the end of the tumultuous and uncertain 2020, there are strong signs that in 2021, life as we once knew it, will once again return to some level of normalcy. This means employers can look forward to re-opening their doors to employees, clients, patients and customers.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) has just granted Emergency Use Authorization for two COVID-19 vaccines. With the distribution of these vaccines, employers will now face a different set of challenges as they grapple with the decision of whether or not to require employee vaccination.

Click here for more information. Courtesy of Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani Law Firm.

The Biden Administration last week, imposed a freeze on new and pending federal regulations. The freeze is designed to ensure that new and pending regulations are first reviewed by Biden appointees for consistency with the incoming Administration’s regulatory agenda before they take effect. The freeze is directly aimed at the flurry of regulations proposed or issued during the closing days of the Trump Administration. Last minute regulations and subsequent freezes are common when presidential administrations change, particularly when the incoming president is a member of the opposing party.

The freeze places a 60-day hold on all final rules already published in the Federal Register but, with effective dates after January 20, 2021. Pending review, final rules subject to the 60-day hold may be issued as written, amended or withdrawn entirely after a 30-day public notice and comment period.

The freeze also halts further action on proposed rules, policy determinations, regulatory interpretations and other regulatory actions currently under agency consideration. Once reviewed, regulatory actions subject to the freeze will be amended or withdrawn altogether. Among these regulatory actions is a recent proposal by the EPA to ease underground storage tank compatibility requirements in order qualify existing E10 certified UST systems for E15 service. The EPA is also proposing to modify or eliminate the current E15 dispenser warning label and determine whether states are preempted from issuing their own E15 label requirements.

Trump era regulations that do not qualify for the regulatory freeze because they took effect before January 20, 2021, could be rolled back more slowly by pending lawsuits or through the public notice and comment rulemaking process. These rules include: lowered mileage standards for cars and trucks; less stringent greenhouse gas emission standards for both stationary and mobile sources; and the recent “waters of the United States” rule that limits the definition of wetlands that qualify for protection from development. 

EMA is working closely with the U.S. Departments of Energy, Transportation, Small Business Administration (SBA), Homeland Security, Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, & Emergency Response, the EPA, and the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) to mitigate any negative impact of the COVID19 coronavirus on energy marketers. The talks are a continuation of EMA’s ongoing emergency preparedness initiative to establish and maintain coordination between marketers and emergency response officials during declarations of emergency to ensure adequate fuel supply is available to consumers. EMA encourages you to notify EMA staff of any needs or concerns that you have so that we can communicate to the most efficient government employees to obtain the information or the help that you may need.

Click here to access EMA’s COVID-19 Situational Update and Resources webpage which provides updates on important issues impacting energy marketers such as Automatic Extension of Expiring CDLs, CLPs and Medical Certificates; TSA Driver Hazmat Endorsements; CDC updates; State and Local Orders and Paycheck Protection Program information.

Before President Trump left office, the U.S. EPA issued a total of three small refinery exemptions from RFS blending mandates (two waivers for the 2019 compliance year and one waiver for the 2018 compliance year). However, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily blocked implementation of the three refinery exemptions and gave EPA until February 3 to provide an explanation of its action. Several waiver requests remain outstanding for 2019 and 2020, which the Biden Administration will need to address although the Trump Administration did extend the compliance deadline for 2019 renewable volume obligations (RVOs) to November 30, 2021 as well as the 2020 deadlines to January 31, 2022, and June 1, 2022.

The Trump Administration delayed action on granting most of the small refinery exemptions for 2019 and 2020 biofuel-blending requirements due to ongoing litigation over the validity of such waivers. The EPA decision came shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review an U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling last year invalidating 3 small refinery exemptions. The court of appeals ruled that the EPA improperly issued the exemptions retroactively to small refineries whose earlier temporary exemptions had already lapsed. Since 2017, the retroactive small refinery exemptions have reduced renewable blending volumes by nearly 4 billion gallons, primarily corm ethanol. Review by the U.S. Supreme Court will likely add volatility to the RINs market until a final ruling is handed down.

Last Wednesday, among the many environmental policies that the new Administration is expected to reverse, President Biden signed an Executive Order revoking a critical permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. “The Permit is hereby revoked,” Biden's executive order says. “Leaving the Keystone XL pipeline permit in place would not be consistent with my Administration’s economic and climate imperatives.”

EMA strongly supports development of the Keystone XL Pipeline which has had more than ten years of debate and multiple environmental impact studies that have shown the pipeline would have no effect on climate change.

Meanwhile, President Biden also announced a moratorium on oil and gas leasing activities in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge that Trump’s administration had recently opened to development. Click here for the story. 

Special thanks to Lea McCullough for her leadership in working with Meridian to design and deliver the EMLI programs. Here are the dates and information on how to register.  

 

 

(includes MBTI – The Myers Briggs Type Indicator Assessment)

Understanding Ourselves and Others

Facilitator: Lea McCullough

Friday, Monday, Tuesday - 2/26, 3/1, 3/2 @ 1:00 – 2:30 PM EDT

Registration Fee: $795

Making a Difference In and Through State Associations

Facilitator: Lea McCullough

Wednesday – 3/3 @ 1:00-2:30 PM EDT

Registration Fee: $195

How to Become a Better Lobbyist

Learn to Have Conversations That Have More Influence

To be scheduled in June

Registration Fee: $195

Three Course Bundle for $995

  

 

https://emamasters.com/energy-marketers-leadership-institute/