Code of Vermont Rules › Agency 31 - DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SERVICE › Sub-Agency 000 - GENERAL › Chapter 005 - EMERGENCY PETROLEUM SETASIDE › Section 31 000 005 - EMERGENCY PETROLEUM SETASIDE

Current through June, 2024
Preamble
Adequate supplies of fuel are essential to the health,
				  welfare and safety of the people of Vermont; any severe disruption in fuel
				  supplied for use within the state would cause grave hardship and pose a threat
				  to the health and economic wellbeing [well-being] of the people of the state;
				  such interruptions should be responded to by reliance to the greatest extent
				  practicable on the free market system; and that temporary and concurrent state
				  authority for a fuel setaside program should be in place as the federal
				  government terminates, suspends or fails to implement all or part of the
				  federal program.
In response to the needs enumerated above, the 1981
				  adjourned session of the Vermont General Assembly passed Public Act 162 which
				  was signed into law by Governor Richard A. Snelling on April 15, 1982.
Section 1.1 Purpose
The Vermont Emergency Petroleum Set-Aside Act requires the
				  VSEO to establish and maintain a standby petroleum set-aside program for use
				  during an energy emergency; specifying the maximum set-aside percentage level
				  for each type of fuel; specifying the activities for which set-aside fuel can
				  be made available; authorizing the VSEO to collect certain information from
				  prime suppliers during an energy emergency; requiring suppliers to provide
				  set-aside product to applicants as authorized by the VSEO; providing for
				  procedures for appealing actions of the VSEO related to the set-aside program
				  during an energy emergency; authorizing the VSEO to require prime suppliers to
				  release set-aside product into an area which has been designated by the
				  Governor as suffering from an intrastate supply imbalance; requiring any state
				  set-aside program to be consistent with a federal set-aside program if one is
				  in effect; providing for certain penalties; providing that these regulations
				  terminate on July 1, 1984; and relating generally to the establishment of a
				  standby emergency petroleum set-aside.
Section 1.2 Definitions
Definitions as used in these regulations:
"Assignment" means a written authorization by the VSEO
				  ordering that a specified purchaser be supplied state set-aside product by a
				  specified prime supplier.
"Agricultural Production" means activities for the commercial
				  production of food, including farming, dairying, and fishing, and related
				  support services.
"Base Period" The base period will cover the most recent 12
				  month period prior to the month in which the set-aside is activated, e.g., if
				  the state set-aside were activated in May of 1982 the base period would be for
				  the period May 1981 through April 1982.
"Consumer" means any individual, trustee, agency,
				  partnership, association, corporation, company, municipality, political
				  subdivision or other legal entity which purchases liquid fossil fuels for
				  ultimate consumption within Vermont.
"Cross Branding/Commingling" means petroleum products with
				  one brand label/logo delivered into tanks at locations displaying another brand
				  label/logo by prime suppliers and wholesale purchaser resellers who are ordered
				  to do so by the Director of the VSEO.
"Director" means the director of the Vermont State Energy
				  Office.
"Distributor" means any individual, trustee, agency,
				  partnership, association, corporation, company, municipality, political
				  subdivision or other legal entity which purchases or markets liquid fossil
				  fuels from a prime supplier or any other source and resells those fuels to
				  consumers within Vermont.
"Emergency Care Facilities" means public or private buildings
				  used to lodge and care for individuals whose place of lodging are rendered
				  uninhabitable due to an energy supply disruption.
"Emergency Services" means but is not limited to law
				  enforcement, fire fighting, emergency road services, emergency medical
				  services.
" End-User" means any firm which is an ultimate consumer of
				  an allocated product other than a Wholesale Purchaser-Consumer.
"Energy Production" means but is not limited to the
				  processing, production, and distribution of energy resources including solar
				  energy, fuel produced from any organic material (including wood, wastes,
				  petroleum, coal, and natural gas), geothermal, nuclear energy and electrical
				  energy.
"Hardship" means a situation involving or potentially
				  involving substantial discomfort or danger and or economic dislocation caused
				  by a shortage of a petroleum product.
"Health Care Facility" means usage by public or private
				  social services agencies which operate programs for the provision of essential
				  health and welfare service.
"Liquid Fossil Fuel" means heating oils, light and heavy
				  diesel oil, motor gasoline, propane, butane, residual fuel oils, kerosene and
				  aviation fuels.
"Passenger Transportation Services" means publicly and
				  privately owned air, marine and surface operations for transporting the general
				  public; bus transportation of pupils to and from schools; vanpooling; and
				  including facilities necessary to support such operations.
"Petroleum Products" means butane, propane (LPG), Gasoline
				  (leaded, unleaded, premium and aviation), Kerosene (No. 1K, No. 2K, range oil
				  and store oil), No. 2 Heating Oil (home heating oil), Diesel Fuel (No. 1D and
				  No. 2D), Jet fuel (kerosene base), No. 4 Fuel Oil (including 4D) and Residual
				  Fuel Oil (No. 5 and No. 5 fuel oil), as defined by ASTM.
"Petroleum Set-aside" means the amount of liquid fossil fuel
				  which is made available from the total supply of a prime supplier for
				  utilization by the State Energy Office pursuant to this chapter to resolve
				  hardships and emergencies due to energy shortages.
"Prime Supplier" means any individual, trustee, agency,
				  partnership, association, corporation, company, municipality, political
				  subdivision or other legal entity which makes the first sale of any liquid
				  fossil fuel into the state distribution system for consumption within the
				  state.
"Public Utility" an enterprise engaged in the production,
				  transmission or distribution of electricity or pipeline gas, (natural or
				  propane) which is regulated by Vermont law.
"Purchaser" means a wholesale purchaser, and end user or
				  both.
"Residential Use" means direct use in residential dwellings
				  or churches or other place of worship for space heating, refrigeration,
				  cooking, water heating and other residential uses.
"Shortfall" means the difference between supply and demand
				  for a covered product.
"State Set-aside" means with respect to a particular state
				  set-aside product, a particular time period, and a particular prime supplier,
				  the state set-aside percentage level for that product applied to that prime
				  supplier's total supply available for that time period which will be sold into
				  the state distribution system for consumption within the state. (See also,
				  Petroleum Set-aside.)
"Supplier" (See prime supplier).
"Supply Obligation" means a prime supplier's obligation to
				  supply all wholesale purchaser-resellers and all wholesale purchaser consumers
				  which purchased or obtained petroleum products from that supplier during the
				  base period as defined above.
"Telecommunication Services" means the emergency or essential
				  installation, repair, operation, and maintenance of voice, telegraph, video,
				  and similar communication services to the public.
"VSEO" means the Vermont State Energy Office.
"Wholesale Purchaser-Consumer" means any firm that is an
				  ultimate consumer which, as part of its normal business practices, purchases or
				  obtains an allocated product from a prime supplier or wholesale
				  purchaser-reseller and receives delivery of the product into a storage tank
				  substantially under the control of that firm at a fixed location.
"Wholesale Purchaser-Reseller" means any firm which
				  purchases, receives through transfer or otherwise obtains (as by consignment)
				  an allocated product and resells or otherwise transfers it to other purchasers
				  without substantially changing its form.
Section 1.3 Petroleum Data Collection to
				Operate an Emergency Petroleum Set-Aside Program
A. Upon a determination by the Governor that
				a Petroleum Set-Aside Program is required, the Director of the VSEO will
				implement the following information collection procedures:
1. The Director shall determine what
				petroleum data is required to operate a set-aside to meet the current emergency
				and hardship needs of Vermont's citizens and businesses and shall take action
				to acquire such information. If the Director determines that the necessary
				energy information to operate the State Set-Aside Program is unavailable from
				the Federal Government or any other known source, then such Energy Information
				will be collected by the VSEO.
a. The
				Director may require the reporting of the necessary energy information from any
				prime supplier. (See definitions.)
b. The Director may require the reporting of
				energy information by order, questionnaire or such means as is deemed
				appropriate.
c. Whenever reports
				from prime suppliers are requested under this subpart, order, questionnaire or
				other means shall reference that such reports are being requested under the
				authority of V.S.A. Title 9, Chapter 112. The information to be reported to the
				VSEO by every prime supplier on or before the 20th of each month during the
				period the Emergency Petroleum Set-Aside is in operation shall include, but not
				be limited to the following:
1) Total actual
				deliveries into the state during the preceding month by set-aside
				product;
2) The total supply
				available for distribution into the state for consumption in the state during
				the upcoming month.
3) The state
				set-aside volume for distribution in the state during the coming month by
				set-aside product.
d.
				The Director shall notify prime suppliers of each type of covered set-aside
				product and the monthly petroleum set-aside percentage (not exceeding three
				percent) for such products on or before the 1st of the month prior to month in
				which the product is to be made available.