EC Wire

Wondering how you can help support US energy production during recess?  Personal, handwritten letters are highly effective and increase the chance your letter will find its way to your lawmaker’s desk.  Here are some tips for putting your thoughts on paper.

Getting started.

Be specific about the issue you are writing about. What change do you want to see? What message do you want to deliver?

Check out information on the Energy Citizens website and from other sources.  This will help you support your view and argue your case, and may include:

• Statistics—has any relevant research been done that could support your case?
• Context—what actions have been taken by the government?
• Other interesting facts—has the issue received any media attention?

Ideas for where to search:

• Energycitizens.org
• The website of the government department responsible
• Federal or state government websites
• Political party websites

Write to your politician.

Letters are most impactful if you write to the person who represents your district.  Senate.gov and House.gov both have features that can help you look up your Members of Congress and their contact information.

Putting pen to paper

Language

Use clear English but remember you are expressing your point of view, so it is good to use phrases such as “I feel” and “I want to see.”

Be polite

Being rude reduces the chance the politician will read the letter.  You can be firm and state your case without being rude.

Layout

Contact details:

• Include your mailing address so the lawmaker can write back.

Form of address:

• Dear President Obama
• Dear Secretary (last name)
• Dear Senator
• Dear Congressman
• Dear Mr/Mrs/Ms/Dr (last name)

Introduction:

• Briefly state your issue.
• Briefly state what you want the lawmaker to do about it.

Body:

• Focus on two or three main points that support your view. Use examples from your research as evidence.

Conclusion:

• Reiterate your view expressed in the introduction.
• Ask the lawmaker to keep you informed.
• Conclude with a standard, polite closing phrase (e.g. regards, yours sincerely) and your signature.

In an electronic age, people don’t send handwritten letters to Congress very often, which means your handwritten letters stand out.  It is easy to host a letter-writing party, and you can get people to take action while having fun and learning more about why we need to develop our own energy resources. 

Here are some tips to make your letter-writing party a success:

Make it fun.
There are many ways you can emphasize the “party” in “letter-writing party” to make it fun for your friends and neighbors:

• Have a potluck or a picnic.
• Make it a movie night or host brunch.
• Bring in a guest speaker to host a discussion on energy citizenship and our need for domestic oil and natural gas.
• Create a fun activity or game to help people get to know each other.

Of course, you can always come up with your own creative idea.  The key is to make being there a valuable experience for the people who come.

Get people informed.
Writing letters together allows people to share ideas, collaborate, and feel part of a movement.  As the host of the party, it’s your job to show people that writing letters is important and effective. Things to share include:

• Whom you are writing to and why.
• What you’re asking for and why.
• Why letter-writing works.

Be prepared.

Make writing letters as easy as possible for people.  You can provide everything or make bringing supplies part of the letter “potluck.”  Make sure you have:

• Paper
• Pens
• Stamps
• Envelopes
• Addresses of recipients
• Tips on writing effective letters

Ask people to do more.
If your letter-writing party gets people excited about taking action to support energy security, you’ll want to take advantage of that excitement:

• Encourage them to spread the word among other friends and neighbors. 
• Ask them to sign up on the Energy Citizens site. 
• Encourage them to hold their own letter-writing party.

These are just a few suggestions; you should feel free to be creative about ways people in your community can do more.

Get everyone’s contact information.

Your letter-writing party can lead to more participation if you follow up with everyone who attended.  Make sure you have everyone’s phone numbers and email addresses so you can plan other events in the future.  And don’t forget to let them know when there are opportunities to take action on the Energy Citizens site.  

Report back.

We want to share your action and successes with others, and be able to tell members of Congress about what you are doing in their districts.  Let Renee (info@energycitizens.org) keep track of the number of letters you generate and take photos so we can post them to our site. Your actions can inspire others to follow your lead!

RIN stands for Renewable Identification Number.  They are essentially “credits” that refiners need in order to show they are in compliance with Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) blending requirements.

 

The EPA assigns RINs to track refiners’ renewable fuel usage.  If refiners do not use enough renewable fuel, they can purchase RINs to satisfy RFS mandates.

This system has led to two negative consequences – soaring RIN prices and fraud.

The Price of RINs

• Refiners are scrambling to find enough RINs to meet their RFS obligation.  This has caused the price of RINs to surge as much as 1,400 percent since last year.
• Because of declining gasoline demand and increasing RFS standards, this rapid increase in RIN cost – which adds to the cost of making gasoline – could continue if RFS requirements are not relaxed.

RIN Fraud

• The combination of high RIN costs and limited availability has encouraged fraud.  Since 2011, the EPA has identified 140 million invalid or counterfeited biodiesel credits.

Problems with RINs are just further proof that the RFS does not work in today’s energy market.  Tell Washington that the RFS needs to be repealed.

In an effort to avoid the E10 blend wall crisis, the EPA has issued a partial waiver to allow gasoline blended with 15 percent ethanol (E15) to enter the market.  But they failed to take into account the significant problems this could cause for filling stations.

These largely independent, small businesses are simply not set up to dispense gasoline containing this high alternative fuel content.

• According to the Petroleum Marketers Association of America, there are 700,000 gasoline dispensers in the U.S., and fewer than 5,000 have been certified for E15.
• The cost to upgrade equipment for E15 would run from thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars per station.

That’s a tremendous burden on small business owners.

•  The vast majority of the 156,000 gasoline stations are owned by independent businesses (not the major integrated oil companies). 
• 60 percent of all stations are owned by a single individual who owns a single store.
• The average filling station’s annual profit is only $40,000.

The Petroleum Marketers Association of America has estimated that it will cost almost $10 billion industry wide for dispensers to sell E15.  Even when using pump retrofit kits, costs will hit $4 billion , not including the expense of breaking concrete to change out underground storage tanks.  Additionally, over 3,000 miles of underground piping at the station have not been certified safe for E15.

The total price tag of dispensing E15 at $10 billion comes at a steep price for a product that consumers are not even asking retailers to sell. 

Like the RFS, the E15 waiver does not work.  Join us, and tell Congress that the RFS must be repealed.
 

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