HAPPY WEDNESDAY READERS

Yesterday I summarized a resolution by Tangipahoa Parish which asked their Louisiana and US Congressional delegation help in requiring Louisiana oil refineries to manufacture a portion of their gasoline as ethanol free gas.

On Tuesday, August 23rd, I appeared before the St John Parish Council and gave them a presentation of the issues surrounding the new 15% ethanol gasoline which will likely begin showing up at stations later this year. I asked them to approve a draft resolution similar to the one that Tangipahoa Parish had approved in late July of this year. I added a few items that the Tangi Parish resolution did not address. Here is the resolution I proposed to the St John Parish Council:

ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST PARISH COUNCIL

STATE OF LOUISIANA

RESOLUTION R11-30

Mr.____________ proposed and Mr.__________ seconded the following resolution:

THE ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST PARISH COUNCIL HEREBY RESOLVES:

A Resolution in support of allowing consumers choice of Ethanol Gasoline or Non-Ethanol Gasoline

WHEREAS, the need for conventional gasoline (non-ethanol blend) is vital to the effective and efficient operation of water craft, 2000 and older passenger vehicles and light trucks, motorcycles, four wheelers, jet skis, chain saws and lawn and garden equipment, and;

WHEREAS, St. John the Baptist Parish and many other parishes in our great State have a large number of waterways with significant numbers or recreational, commercial and leisure watercraft that use these waterways, and;

WHEREAS, a large number of our residents maintain their own lawns and many others also work in the lawn care and landscaping industry and have older power equipment, and;

WHEREAS, south Louisiana is vulnerable to hurricanes and subsequent power losses and many home owners own gasoline powered home generators for use during power outages, and;

WHEREAS, ethanol gasoline in many cases can be harmful to the operation of new and older outboard marine engines, power equipment and older underground storage tanks, in turn putting an undue hardship on small family owned businesses and consumers, and;

WHEREAS, the Federal Environmental Agency (EPA) recently approved 15% ethanol gasoline and by it’s own directive this new fuel cannot be used in model year 2000 and older passenger cars and light trucks, vehicles with heavy duty engines like buses and delivery vans, motorcycles, marine engines, four wheelers, jet skis, chain saws and all lawn and garden tools (and gasoline powered home generators), and;

WHEREAS, if all current gas stations selling 10% ethanol gasoline convert to the new 15% ethanol gasoline blend, effectively making all the above listed equipment unusable if non ethanol gasoline is not readily available in all communities of our great State.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, the St. John the Baptist Parish Council petitions our United States and Louisiana Congressional Delegations to take appropriate action to have non-ethanol gasoline available from all refineries throughout the State giving small business owners and consumers a choice between conventional gasoline and ethanol gasoline, at a competitive price.

The above resolution having been submitted to a vote; the vote thereon was as follows:

YEAS:

NAYS: ABSENT: ABSTAINING:

The result of the vote on the resolution was YEAS,

NAYS, ABSENT, ABSTAINING and this resolution was declared adopted on the day of , 2011.

_______________

COUNCIL CHAIR SECRETARY PARISH PRESIDENT

_____________ _____________ __________________

Date signed Date signed Date signed

CERTIFIED, to be a true and correct copy of a resolution adopted by the St. John the Baptist Parish Council on the ________ day of _____________, 2011.

______________________

SECRETARY

In tomorrow's blog, I will summarize the results of the resolution proposal and the St John Parish Council's response to my proposal.

HAPPY TUESDAY READERS!

As a result of an article in the Hammond Star titled "Alternative at the Pumps", published on May 8, 2011 which I helped a journalist from the Star prepare, one of the Tangipahoa Council members brought a proposal to their Parish Council to pass a "resolution" urging their Louisiana and US Congressional delegations to request that Louisiana refineries to produce more ethanol FREE gasoline. The Parish Council clerk mailed their approved resolution to all the other 63 Parishes in the State, urging their Councils to develop a similar resolution. The hope was that if all Louisiana Parishes would enact a similar resolution, then maybe that might get the attention of Louisiana and US Congressman to get involved to help Louisiana Consumers before the 15% ethanol issue developes into a crisis situation. Here is a copy of the Tangipahoa Resolution:

(This resolution was sent to the Tangipahoa Parish US and Louisiana Congressional Delegations and all Louisiana 64 Parish Presidents on July 6, 2011).

==================================================================

T.P. RESOLUTION R11-23

Resolution of Tangipahoa Parish Council in Support of Allowing Choice of Non-Ethanol and Ethanol Gasoline

WHEREAS, the need for conventional gasoline (non-ethanol blend) is vital to the effective operation of older water crafts, motor vehicles and lawn and garden equipment.

WHEREAS, Tangipahoa and numerous other parishes in our great state have numerous waterways with large amounts of older recreational and leisure watercrafts that use these waterways.

WHEREAS, a great number of our residents work in the lawn care and landscaping industry and have older power equipment.

WHEREAS, ethanol gasoline in many cases can be harmful to the operation of these older outboard engines, power equipment and older underground storage tanks, in turn putting an undue hardship on small family owned businesses and consumers.

THEN, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Tangipahoa Parish Council petitions our United States Congressional Delegation to work to have non-ethanol gasoline available at our refinery throughout the state giving small business owners and consumers a choice between conventional gasoline and ethanol gasoline at a competitive price.

WHEREAS this Resolution shall become effective immediately upon signature of the Parish President.

On motion by Mr. Bruno and seconded by Mr. Muscarello, the foregoing resolution was hereby declared adopted on this the 27th day of June, 2011 by the following roll-call vote:

YEAS: 9 (Tolar, Rick, Bruno, Muscarello, Bankston, Wells, Notariano, Edwards, Cortez)

NAYS: None

ABSENT: None

NOT VOTING: 1 (Petitto)

ATTEST:

_________________________ ________________________

S/Carla Tate, Clerk of Council S/Thomas M. Tolar, Chairman

Tangipahoa Parish Council Tangipahoa Parish Council

__________________________________

S/Gordon A. Burgess, President

Tangipahoa

====================================================

I encourage all readers to contact your Parish Council or Police Jury representative and urge them to pass a similar resolution and send it to their Parish's Louisiana and US Congressional delegations.

In tomorrow's blog, I'll report on my effort to get my St. John Parish Council to pass a similar resolution.

"Pete" Landry

Happy Monday Readers

Hello Readers:

Several items to report today. First, I've had to remove another gas station from the Ethanol Free Gas Station List today. That one is DV Express - Valero in Gramercy. Since Marathon discontinued selling ethanol free gas from their Garyville Refinery on June 21st, I've now had to remove 59 stations from the website list to date. Here is a breakdown of locations these stations were that were forced to switch to ethanol gas because their distributor could no longer supply them with ethanol free gas:

Ouachita Parish (Monroe/West Monroe area) - 18 stations

Caddo Parish (Shreveport area) - 6 stations

Bossier Parish (Bossier City area) - 5 stations

Livingston Parish (Denham Springs) - 4 stations

St Tammany (Mandeville/Covington) - 4 stations

Lafayette Parish (Lafayette) - 3 stations

Winnfield Parish (Winnfield) - 3 stations

Twelve other Parishes had 1 - 2 stations removed.

Marathon was the largest remaining refinery selling ethanol free gas to south and north Louisiana. As you can see, the northern Parishes were the most affected. THANKS Marathon, for abandoning your ethanol free gas customers. To the best of my knowledge, we now have only four (4) refineries still selling ethanol free gas in the State: the Murphy Oil Refinery in Chalmette, the Chalmette Refining refinery also in Chalmette (used to be the Exxon/Mobil Refinery - they entered into a 50/50 partnership with Citgo several years ago and changed the name), the Placid Refinery in Port Allen and the Krotz Springs Refinery in Krotz Springs. Citgo also supplies some ethanol free gas through an exchange agreement with the Conoco/Phillips refinery in Westlake. They supply most of this to north Louisiana's Teppco Terminal I am told. Although I haven't been able to confirm, I believe the Conoco/Phillips refinery in Westlake is supplying some ethanol free gas to the Lake Charles area.

I have to depend on you, our readers to let me know when you learn of a station on our Ethanol Free Gas Station List has switched to ethanol gas. Please continue to e-mail me to let me know at www.way2gopete@yahoo.com Likewise let me know if you learn of a station that is selling ethanol free gas that is not on my list.

Next item: I participated in a phone interview with Mr. Bob Marshall, writer for the Times Picayune newspaper this morning. I had asked him if he could write an article on the upcoming concern with the new 15% ethanol. He and I discussed many issues for preparing his article. He told me it will run in this upcoming Sunday's (September 4th) issue of The Times Picayune. He writes in the "Sports Section", often the back of the last page in the sports section.

I have sent an article I drafted on the upcoming issue with 15% ethanol gasoline to over 45 newspapers throughout the State. I've sent it to all the major papers in Shreveport, Monroe, Alexandria, Lake Charles, Lafayette, Baton Rouge, New Orleans and at least 35 or more Parish or City papers throughout the State. Most have told me they will run the article. Look for it in your home town newspaper soon. Please e-mail me to let me know when you see it in your hometown paper - please let me know the name of the paper and the date the article was published.

I encourage you to read this article about the major issues with the upcoming new 15% ethanol gas on PeteLandrysRealGas.com website under the "Ethanol Articles" page on the toolbar. It's the first article on that page. I'll write more about 15% ethanol gasoline in another blog.

Have a great day!

"Pete" Landry