A few words from Jim Smith, President/CEO of the Florida Petroleum Marketers Association:

FPMA FOOD & FUEL NOTES
January 29, 2007
A weekly update on the petroleum & convenience store industries in Florida
TEMPERATURE COMPENSATION -Frank Capitano and I, along with others opposed to the temperature compensation (TC) effort, attended the National Conference on Weights and Measures last week in Jacksonville. The presentations were well received by regulators from around the country. The group that filed a lawsuit created out of erroneous newspaper reporting also presented their position to the attendees. The basis for their lawsuit is that retailers knowingly defrauded customers all over the country.
They also assert that retailers are keeping fuel taxes illegally. Both assertions are ignorant at best and deliberately inflammatory and clearly false. I mentioned last week that a manufacturer of dispensers had sought approval for their TC equipment in California. I further questioned the impetus for that effort as it related to money. I have received correspondence from the manufacturer stating that my view of what occurred was incorrect. I believed that the manufacturer clearly knew that there are efforts in several states to go to temperature compensation. I assumed that they also knew that approval of their equipment in California would provide impetus to the TC issue in neighboring Arizona. I further assumed that if it passed in
Arizona they would stand to have significant sales of equipment in that state. I thought when I received their correspondence that my cynical nature might have gotten the best of me. That’s the way it seemed until I received confirmation that they indeed did what they said they didn’t do. That makes my early assumptions right on target and it brings into question why they feigned outrage last week. This is not about looking for a fight it’s about looking for the facts. Temperature compensation requirements will produce a very heavy financial burden on every retail facility. The estimate for the whole country is $2.1 billion for equipment. That does not include installation or maintenance. A manufacturer that stands to reap a considerable financial windfall is somewhat suspect in their reasoning for their efforts. I simply want all of you to have the best information available.

Florida Petroleum Marketers & Convenience Store Association ~ 209 Office Plaza Drive ~ Tallahassee, FL 32301
T: 800.523.9166 or 850.877.5178 ~ F: 850.877.5864 ~fpma@fpma.org ~ www.fpma.org
Jim Smith, President/CEO ~ Linda Thomas, VP Finance ~ Mary Garden, Communications Director ~ Adam Selvidge, Admin Assistant