Buck-A-Barrel Oil Lightering Bill Back In The General Assembly!

(Audubon's Dave Carter presenting Vic Singer with his own personal Soap Box)

Vic Singer has been on this soap box for nearly a decade.....
CIVIC LEAGUE FOR NEW CASTLE COUNTY RESOLUTION

WHEREAS: Governor Minner has proposed a 5 cent per gallon additional tax on gasoline sold in Delaware, starting on September 1, 2007; and
WHEREAS: The Controller General's Office has projected estimated revenues from such a tax at $23.4 million in FY 2008 and $28.6 million in FY 2009; and
WHEREAS: The Great Stone Anchorage in the Delaware Bay is reputedly the only sheltered east coast port between Maine and Texas capable of accommodating oil tankers with drafts as large as 55 feet; and
WHEREAS: Lightering of such tankers - - transfer of bulk product to barges or tankers of lesser draft to deliver product to refineries on the Delaware River and elsewhere on the eastern seaboard - - has been ongoing at the Great Stone Anchorage since before the June 28, 1971 effective date of Delaware's Coastal Zone Act (CZA); and
WHEREAS: Corporate entities involved in such lightering have never been granted CZA permits, and only one such entity (Maritrans) has been granted an Air Quality permit covering the activity; and
WHEREAS: In 2005, Maritrans requested an increase in the maximum amount of lightering permissible under its Air Quality permit(1) beyond the 100 million barrel ceiling (12 month rolling average basis) then permissible; and
WHEREAS: Imposing a $1 per barrel tax on oil lightered at Great Stone Anchorage would produce revenues in the neighborhood of $100 million per year; and
WHEREAS: Since a barrel of crude oil produces about 26 gallons of gasoline (along with other hydrocarbons), a $1 per barrel tax on lightered oil would have an impact on the price of gasoline no larger than 4 cents per gallon; and
WHEREAS: Because the revenues from such a tax would be spread over more than just Delaware, a tax of $1 per barrel of oil (less than 4 cents/gallon on gasoline) would produce more than three times as much Delaware revenue as the 5 cent per gallon additional tax proposed by Governor Minner.
NOW THEREFORE IT IS RESOLVED BY CIVIC LEAGUE FOR NEW CASTLE COUNTY THAT
A tax no smaller than $1 per barrel of oil lightered at Great Stone Anchorage in the Delaware Bay be imposed with an effective date no later than September 1, 2007 and that the first $1 per barrel of such revenue be earmarked for Delaware's Transportation Trust Fund.
ADOPTED (in concept) without dissent
General Membership Meeting of May 15, 2007
Attest: _________________

...the oil lightering proposal had now been introduced for the third time....

HB 418 - AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 30 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO STATE TAXES AND VESSEL-TO-VESSEL TRANSFERS OF PETROLEUM PRODUCTS - This bill imposes a license requirement and fee of $1 per barrel upon any entity engaged in the commercial lightering of petroleum products on waters within the territorial jurisdiction of this State.

 So far HB 418 - the lightering bill filed yesterday - is MIA in  mainstream news. But word is out about a road revenue "compromise". WDEL AP and (News Journal) Jonathan Starkey are breaking the news of the Deal to raise weekend Del. 1 tolls

Members of Gov. Jack Markell's administration and lawmakers have reached a compromise to raise weekend tolls on Del. 1 from $2 to $3 and authorize $20 million in new debt to pay for road maintenance projects.  The agreement replaces a more ambitious effort by Markell to raise Delaware's per-gallon gasoline tax by 10 cents and authorize new debt to fund $100 million in new projects annually. The higher tolls will raise about $10 million annually, with the majority of that money restoring proposed cuts to Community Transportation Fund accounts that lawmakers use to fund hometown road projects. Lawmakers fiercely protect the accounts to fix roads and curry favor in their districts. The $20 million in debt, far lower than what the administration pushed for, will pay for paving projects. "We need more revenue," Transportation Secretary Shailen Bhatt told lawmakers. "You can't solve this problem with borrowing alone."
........The capital budget committee voted 11-1 to approve the higher tolls and new debt. Only Sen. Colin Bonini, R-Dover South, dissented. "I'm not thrilled about raising tolls," Bonini said. The committee's vote was a formality, as Bhatt had the authority to raise tolls without agreement of the General Assembly. But administration officials did not want to take the step to raise tolls unilaterally and lawmakers agreed to provide support. "It's our understanding as a department that there is no legislative vote that is necessary," Bhatt told lawmakers. "However we didn't want to just come in on July 1 and say we have this avenue, we wanted to take it. It's something we wanted to have full transparency on."

See related story Prospects bleak for Markell's revenue proposals