Business View Magazine | December 2020

124 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2020 demand signal. This created a market imbalance and not enough places to store the products, resulting in full or nearly full storage in the United States for petroleum and some refined products. Clay notes, “That being the case, if you were a terminal that had scheduled some fraction of your tanks to be out of service for inspection during that period, you literally could not take your tank out of service because there was nowhere in the country to put the products. Our initial raising of the alarm to the EPA, saying we need some heightened attention to this issue, was brought about by the pandemic. The good news was that after several months of advocacy, and a temporary order during the pandemic that allowed that flexibility, this new rule codifies the approach going forward. It actually has environmental benefits because you don’t have to clean out and de-gas a tank and vent it out to the atmosphere every 10 years; it means operational efficiencies are enhanced; and also reduces the burden placed on the EPA from hundreds of requests every year to consider an alternate compliance strategy. It’s a great win across the board. A common sense change that we’ve been advocating for a long time.” Another impact of COVID-19 on the industry involved summer gasoline blending. As Clay explains, “The drop in demand meant that our terminals were simply not moving product according to their planned schedules. And in order to empty out that storage and provide room for the summer blends of gasoline they were counting on a certain level of demand. So when that fell, the timelines needed to extend. It was just impractical to move the winter blends out to start putting the summer blends into the supply chain. In other words, you had to work through that winter blend stock and then introduce the summer blends. It was about accommodating the supply chain, so we didn’t have fuel supply disruptions. These are state regulations for the most part. and we were able to advocate on behalf of the membership. We worked with the EPA and then provided talking points and support to our members to give them information to reach out to the state.” At the time, the association was having ILTA President, Kathryn Clay