Code of Vermont Rules › Agency 30 - PUBLIC UTILITY COMMISSION › Sub-Agency 000 - GENERAL › Chapter 040 - EMERGENCY PETROLEUM SETASIDE › Section 30 000 040 - 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.