ILTA works hard for its members

A YEAR APART

ASSOCIATION • ILTA HAS WORKED HARD THIS YEAR TO HELP ITS MEMBERS DURING A STRESSFUL TIME ON MANY FRONTS, AS KATHRYN CLAY, ILTA PRESIDENT, REPORTS

2020 IS SHAPING up to be a year like no other. The Covid-19 pandemic threw the entire world into flux, causing us to rethink the way we work, the way we run business and our personal and professional priorities. But Covid-19 has also presented opportunities, including many the International Liquid Terminals Association (ILTA) has capitalised on this year to bring our members greater value.

The pandemic spurred ILTA to find new and better ways to reach its members. We have grown our membership offerings though an enhanced website, achieved greater membership interaction through calls and webinars, offered a more robust weekly and monthly newsletter, and established a new membership platform that allows our members to easily to update their information.

WHAT ILTA HAS DONE It has been a successful year for ILTA’s advocacy efforts as well. Some of our accomplishments relate to our industry’s needs in the face of Covid-19, while others reflect long-standing priorities that will position our industry to be stronger well into the future. Some highlights include:

ILTA HAS MADE SOME SIGNIFICANT PROGRESS IN ITS

ADVOCACY EFFORTS TO HELP ITS MEMBERS BOTH

Ensuring fair treatment of terminals by railways. ILTA succeeded in persuading the Surface Transportation Board to issue new regulations correcting a misinterpretation of a 2014 ruling on railroad demurrage billing. The new regulation will ensure fair treatment of terminal operators, eliminating billing practices that had cost terminal operators tens of millions of dollars each year.

Strong prospects for greater, more efficient spending on ports, harbours and waterways. ILTA successfully lobbied for a new funding mechanism for both harbours and inland waterways to allow more timely investment in this essential infrastructure for terminal operations. Congress is expected to pass a bill later this year with near-record funding for water infrastructure.

Common sense approach to Process Safety Management (PSM). ILTA secured a favourable decision by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) on PSM requirements for in-line butane blending. OSHA had introduced a departure from established practices that would have imposed significant costs on the terminal industry and downstream customers — without providing any additional health and safety benefits to workers during gasoline loading operations. This advocacy success will eliminate needless expenditures of hundreds of thousands of dollars at each blending facility.

Securing a delay in summer gasoline blending rules in response to Covid-19. ILTA and coalition partners made the case to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for additional time for the changeover to summer-grade gasoline, giving the industry more flexibility as fuel demand flattened in the early weeks of the pandemic.

In addition, as of this writing, ILTA is continuing to convey to EPA the need for flexibility for out-of-service tank inspection requirements. We are pleased with the early round of accommodations that the agency has provided, and we will continue to communicate the industry’s priorities on this – and many other issues – going forward.

ILTA’s efforts to strengthen our organisation and amplify our voice have positioned us to persevere for our members — especially in a time of great uncertainty. We stand by to help all our members – the terminal operators and the suppliers that provide goods and services to the terminal industry – to thrive, grow and meet challenges, and we urge non-members to join us. www.ilta.org