CStore Decisions
Rail Strike Causes Worry for Retail and Fuel Industries
Congressional action has taken place to stop the rail strike, as it could eventually have a long-term effect on the economy. December 2, 2022
In an attempt to stop a railroad strike, the Senate has approved a bill that forces unions to accept a tentative agreement reached earlier this year between railroad managers and their workers and make an imminent strike illegal — a bill already approved by the House, according to NPR . A measure to offer paid sick leave was also rejected. A rail strike would significantly impact the retail and fuel industry. “America’s railroads serve nearly every sector of our economy and provide access to global markets. The freight rail system is a lifeline for many industries, ensuring the transport of not only retail goods, but also essential food and energy supplies,” said President and CEO of the National Retail Federation (NRF) Matthew Shay prior to the Senate vote. “We commend the swift action of the House to approve this critical piece of legislation and prevent a potential catastrophic freight rail shutdown that could cost the economy $2 billion a day.”
A rail strike could cause significant disruptions throughout the supply chain, particularly at seaports, according to NBC News . When cargo comes into the U.S. on ships, it is often unloaded onto trains that take the containers to distribution points to be further transported by trucks, retailers have said. “A rail strike, coupled with historically high levels of inflation, could wreak financial havoc and inflict catastrophic harm to American businesses, workers, consumers and the U.S. economy,” Shay said. “We are in peak holiday shopping season, and it is essential that retailers and other businesses are able to rely on these vital supply chain partners.”
A rail shutdown could also once again drive gas prices higher, just as oil has dropped to its lowest level since December because of the disruption it would cause to the shipment of ethanol, which is used in the vast majority of gasoline consumed in the U.S, said NBC News. More than 70% of ethanol is transported by rail, and 25% of grain gets to ethanol processing plants by train, according to the Renewable Fuels Association. “Our country’s ethanol producers rely greatly on the railroads to move their products to market, and if the nation’s trains stop running, the nation’s ethanol biorefineries stop running too,” said NRF President Geoff Cooper. “We need a resolution quickly so the 400,000-plus jobs supported by our nation’s ethanol industry, and the rural economy itself, will not suffer the dire consequences of an interruption in rail service.”
Railroads handle the transportation of 30-40% of all goods, according to NPR, but take on a great share of products like ethanol, fertilizer and grains. Railroad managers warn that with a strike, there are few other options given ongoing trucking shortages and the risk of backlogging ports. Not all in Congress were satisfied with the outcome of the vote, however, particularly due to the failed sick leave effort. Yet, President Biden insists efforts will be renewed for paid sick leave for workers of all industries.

Rail Strike Causes Worry for Retail and Fuel Industries

H&S Energy, Handy Mart, and Welcome Break invest in advanced AI-solution to foster data-driven decision making
Hypersonix, the leading enterprise AI platform for consumer commerce industries, today announced they have partnered with a number of regional convenience and fuel retailers to deploy its AI technology to find profitable growth across fuel, retail, and foodservice. Pope & Son, Inc. of North Carolina, and Welcome Break based in the United Kingdom are all examples of early adopters. Hypersonix is a solution that companies in the convenience and fuel segment are turning to as a proven means to provide non-technical business stakeholders with AI-powered diagnostic, predictive and prescriptive analytics to make better, faster decisions. H&S Energy LLC, is a major retail, gasoline, and convenience store operator with approximately 113 locations throughout California, most of which are branded as Chevron locations. H&S also operates Power Market and Extra Mile convenience and food store locations. Initially, H&S is leveraging Hypersonix to support real time fuel pricing as well as optimized merchandising in their stores. “We are constantly looking for ways to stay competitive and always on the lookout to leverage innovation,” said Moe Haris, Chief Financial Officer at H&S Energy, who added, “Hypersonix is helping us to integrate our data from all of our various software applications and other data sources so we can maximize our opportunity to grow profitably through better decision making.”
E.J. Pope & Son, Inc., which operates Handy Mart convenience stores, is a third generation, family-owned company that has grown into a highly recognized chain of convenience stores serving customers across eastern North Carolina. With a constant emphasis on updating existing locations to meet the future needs of customers, including store and fuel layout design, equipment upgrades, and modern food concepts, such as its proprietary Handy Mart Kitchens, Which Wich, Subway, and Godfather’s Pizza, Handy Mart is using Hypersonix’s AI-driven analytics platform to gather and assess data about the cross relationships that exist between the three core aspects of its business – fuel, retail, and QSR. “We pride ourselves on being a local, family-owned business with deep roots in the areas we serve, but we understand that yesterday’s technology won’t get us to where we need to go,” said David Bunch, Chief Operating Officer at E.J. Pope & Son, Inc. “Our partnership with Hypersonix has helped us glean actionable insight to inform our continued growth strategy and expand our services with integrated AI.”
Welcome Break  is one of the largest motorway operators across the United Kingdom, running 44 service areas and 31 hotels across the UK. Welcome Break fuel forecourts, EV charging and amenity buildings are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and attract 85 million customers annually. Beyond fuel and retail, Welcome Break features a number of prominent QSR brands such as Starbucks, KFC, Burger King, Subway, Pizza Express, and Pret A Manger. “We operate a complex business with scores of disparate data sources across our convenience, fuel, retail, hospitality, and foodservice businesses,” said Kash Ghedia, Chief Information Officer at Welcome Break. “Our partnership with Hypersonix will allow us to have one unified data analytics environment in the cloud across our entire enterprise where we can make better sales and marketing decisions about how to best serve our guests.”
Hypersonix is focusing on the convenience and fuel vertical because the environment is complex and diversified across retail, fuel, and foodservice. There are many point solutions being used and they are often poorly integrated. The key differentiator of Hypersonix’s Automated Insights Platform is its ability to process data, infer meaning, recommend actions, and execute them across multiple decision makers. Built for business users, Hypersonix is becoming a true AI nervous system for leading convenience enterprises. “From ingesting raw data from disparate platforms to creating curated insights, Hypersonix’s AI-based tools are helping the convenience industry adapt amid changing consumer expectations and competitive dynamics,” said Todd P. Michaud, President and Chief Commercial Officer of Hypersonix. “A key part of our value proposition is to deploy our platform quickly and affordably without requiring a big effort from the technology organization.”

AI-Powered Insights By Hypersonix Driving Growth In Convenience & Fuel Industries

Ever since the COVID-19 crisis erupted, commentators have predicted that activists would try to hitch global warming to the ongoing fight against coronavirus — not that this required true prophetic gifts. Activists think every crisis requires the dilution of national sovereignty, increased regulations, wealth redistribution, and higher taxes — including to combat the  obesity epidemic . Unsurprisingly, and right on schedule, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres contributed an op-ed in the  New York Times — filled with the usual global-warming bromides — arguing that the fights against the virus and climate change should be joined into one six-point “climate positive” plan. You like economic suppression? You like heavy-handed government regulatory control? You like globalism? Then, Guterres is your man . He writes:
A recovery from the coronavirus crisis must not take us just back to where we were last summer. It is an opportunity to build more sustainable and inclusive economies and societies — a more resilient and prosperous world. A Lack of Specifics
How would Guterres get from here to there? The piece is mostly bereft of policy specifics — specifics breed opposition, after all — but there is one point he makes that we should focus on clearly because of its catastrophic certainty (my emphasis):
Looking forward, public funds should invest in the future, by flowing to sustainable sectors and projects that help the environment and climate. Fossil fuel subsidies must end and polluters must pay for their pollution. Think about exactly what Guterres is advocating in this mushy paragraph. By “polluters must pay for their pollution,” he isn’t referring to the cost of cleaning up oil spills or the remediation of fouled rivers, for which actual polluters are properly held responsible. Rather, he means requiring fossil-fuel enterprises to pay for all perceived costs allegedly caused by carbon emissions. What “Must Pay” Means
If recent history and the statements of green activists are any guide, “must pay,” is likely a passive way of saying bankrupting the oil industry, natural-gas industry, coal industry, fracking enterprises, pipeline companies, oil and gas storage facilities, oil refineries, etc. — all of which would be strip-mined of every asset they own in the way asbestos companies (actual polluters) were destroyed — with the money used to subsidize industries favored by the would-be planet savers and to pay destitute areas of the world to stifle natural-resource development. Think about the corruption potential
In other words, in the great cause of “saving the planet,” open season would be declared against energy industries engaged in perfectly legal enterprises that have been responsible for creating the best standard of living in human history. The actual outcome of such a policy would be the obliteration of wealth, the stifling of innovation, and the loss of countless jobs. Toward the end of his piece, Guterres writes:
For years, we have failed our young by damaging the planet and failing to protect the people most vulnerable to crises. We have a rare and short window of opportunity to rectify that — by rebuilding a better world, not reverting to one that is good for only a minority of its citizens. Baloney. Authoritarian central planning never works and it wouldn’t “save the planet.” It would just make us all less prosperous and free.

Time to Make Fossil Fuel Industries “Pay”?

by vox.com posted 28minutes ago 4 views
Low gas prices in Old Orchard Beach, Maine, on March 30. | Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald via Getty ImagesOil and gas companies were already facing structural problems before Covid-19 and are in long-term decline. As countries across the world go into lockdown in response to Covid-19, economies are in free fall. Almost every sector is taking a hit, hemorrhaging jobs and value. And almost every sector will be shaped, for years to come, by the speed, amount, and the nature of public assistance it receives.

Coronavirus Stimulus Will Be Wasted On Oil And Gas, Fossil Fuel Industries In Decline

48 min 27 sec ago
As the Trump administration rolls back environmental and safety rules for the energy sector, government projections show billions of dollars in savings reaped by companies will come at a steep cost: more premature deaths and illnesses from air pollution, a jump in climate-warming emissions and more severe derailments of trains carrying explosive fuels. The Associated Press analyzed 11 major rules targeted for repeal or relaxation under Trump, using the administration's own estimates to tally how its actions would boost businesses and harm society. The AP identified up to $11.6 billion in potential future savings for companies that extract, burn and transport fossil fuels. Industry windfalls of billions of dollars more could come from a freeze in vehicle efficiency standards that will yield an estimated 79 billion-gallon (300 million-liter) increase in fuel consumption. On the opposite side of the government's ledger, buried in thousands of pages of analyses, are the "social costs" of rolling back the regulations. Among them:
— Up to 1,400 additional premature deaths annually due to the pending repeal of a rule to cut coal plant pollution. — An increase in greenhouse gas emissions by about 1 billion tons (907 million metric tons) from vehicles produced over the next decade — a figure equivalent to annual emissions of almost 200 million vehicles. — Increased risk of water contamination from a drilling technique known as "fracking." — Fewer safety checks to prevent offshore oil spills. For the Trump administration and its supporters, the rule changes examined by AP mark a much-needed pivot away from heavy regulations that threatened to hold back the Republican president's goal of increasing U.S. energy production. But the AP's findings also underscore the administration's willingness to put company profits ahead of safety considerations and pollution effects. SIDING WITH INDUSTRY
The AP found the administration has sought to bolster the changes by emphasizing, and sometimes exaggerating, economic gains while minimizing negative impacts. For example, when calculating future damages from greenhouse gas emissions from coal plants, the Trump administration looked only at U.S. effects, instead of globally. That drastically reduced the benefits of emission restrictions and allowed the administration to conclude the Obama-era rule was no longer justified, given costs to the coal industry. In another instance, the Environmental Protection Agency wants to stop considering secondary benefits of controlling mercury emissions — namely reductions in other pollutants projected to prevent up to 11,000 premature deaths. Last month, the AP revealed that the administration understated the advantages of installing better brakes on trains carrying crude oil and ethanol. Transportation Department officials acknowledged they miscalculated potential benefits by up to $117 million because they failed to include some projected future derailments. In explaining its actions, the Trump administration said in some cases that the previous administration understated the price tag on new industry restrictions. In others, it said President Barack Obama's administration had been overly expansive in how it defined benefits to society. Michael Greenstone, a University of Chicago professor who served as chief economist for Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, said the Trump administration was downplaying the health and environmental impacts of its actions. "When you start fudging the numbers, it's not that the costs just evaporate into thin air. We will pay," Greenstone said. "They are reducing the costs for industries where pollution is a byproduct." The rules being targeted were largely crafted under Obama in response to climate change, the disastrous 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, massive releases from coal ash dumps and fuel train explosions. ADMNISTRATION: NEGLIGIBLE RISKS
Trump's administration has stressed that savings for companies were greater than any increased perils to safety or the environment. "We fully recognize every significant policy decision has a consequence and that those consequences can differ," acting U.S. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt told the AP. "I think when you look at the track record, holistically, what you see is our deregulatory efforts are still pretty protective." The AP's tally of savings was derived from government projections required under a 1993 executive order. Five of the rule changes are still pending. On rules for toxic coal ash, offshore safety and refinery pollution, the administration said companies would save hundreds of millions of dollars with little or no added risk — an assertion former federal officials and environmental groups have disputed. The potential industry savings were projected largely over the next decade. Sectors of the coal industry see lifting costly rules as a matter of survival because demand has plummeted as utilities switch to cleaner-burning fuels. For the oil and gas industry, with hundreds of billions of dollars in annual revenue, the economic impact of the Obama-era rules was comparatively small. But they were vigorously opposed as restrictions on business. "We need to make sure we're putting together rules that are flexible enough to apply the latest, greatest technologies," said Erik Milito, vice president for the American Petroleum institute. He said the group focused on whether rules make sense, rather than cost savings. Critics say the impact on public health and the environment will be even worse than projected. "I don't think it's well understood what the death toll of these policies will be for the American people," said Paul Billings, of the American Lung Association. This Nov. 6, 2013 file photo shows a Whiting Petroleum Co. pump jack pulls crude oil from the Bakken region of the Northern Plains near Bainville, Mont. Image credit: AP Photo/Matthew Brown, File
OBAMA CLIMATE AGENDA ASSAILED
Two sweeping changes under Trump — the rollback of the Clean Power Plan that threatened to close many coal power plants and a reversal of plans to increase vehicle fuel efficiency standards — were centerpieces of Obama's climate change actions. Killing the power plan would save companies up to $6.4 billion, the EPA concluded. The trade-off is almost 61 million tons (55 million metric tons) annually of additional carbon dioxide emissions by 2030. The administration calculated that those emissions carry a maximum of $3.2 billion in "social costs," such as flood damage and higher air conditioning costs. Since company savings outweighed pollution costs, the administration said scrapping the power plan was justified. That conclusion was possible largely because the EPA limited social costs to effects in the U.S., instead of globally as under Obama. EPA spokeswoman Enesta Jones said the analysis complied with a 2003 directive under President George W. Bush that said such reviews should focus on costs and benefits to people in the U.S.
Joe Goffman, a former EPA official who helped create the clean power plan and now at Harvard Law School, said the omission of international impacts "doesn't track with reality" given that climate change is a worldwide problem. The Trump administration also limited pollution cost considerations in its proposal last month on mercury emitted by coal plants. When the mercury rule was finalized in 2012, the EPA projected up to $90 billion in benefits, including avoidance of up to 11,000 premature deaths from other power plant pollutants. Now, the EPA says those benefits could not be considered because they are not directly tied to mercury reductions. The only benefits that should be counted, the agency said, were improvements to IQ scores as a result of less mercury exposure, valued at up to $6 million annually. The National Mining Association had urged the change. Spokesman Conor Bernstein said Obama's EPA misused the concept of secondary pollution benefits to justify its actions. The rollback's impact is unclear since utilities already have spent an estimated $18 billion on new pollution controls. FUEL STANDARDS AND DRILLING SAFETY
Some experts outside government take issue with the rationale for relaxing the fuel economy rule. The Trump administration says reducing standards would save as many as 1,000 lives annually and spare consumers and car companies hundreds of billions of dollars on vehicles with higher gas mileage. To reach that conclusion, officials lowered estimates of how many vehicles people would buy. But economists including from the nonpartisan National Bureau of Economic Research say that assumption was fundamentally flawed, since looser standards would make cars cheaper and therefore increase demand. The economists said the government used misleading findings to wipe out at least $112 billion in potential societal benefits while falsely claiming its change would save numerous lives. "Every change they made was made in the direction to make the standards look more expensive and the rollback to look cheaper and better," said Jeff Alson, who worked 40 years at an EPA lab in Michigan. Several rules reworked under Trump tie directly to worker and public safety. The administration rescinded requirements for improved fuel train brakes after determining the costs to industry would be higher than previously calculated. It acknowledged more spills from derailments would likely occur. After AP's story about the agency's $117 million benefits understatement, spokesman Bobby Fraser said the decision to rescind the Obama rule would stand because the costs were still greater. Two safety rules for offshore oil and gas drilling were adopted following the Deepwater Horizon accident, which killed 11 people and spilled 134 million gallons (507 million liters) of oil. The Interior Department now says less rigid inspection and equipment requirements would save drilling companies hundreds of millions of dollars with "negligible" safety and environmental risks. Lynn Scarlett, acting Interior Secretary under George W. Bush, said the changes ignore a government commission's findings on the Gulf spill. "You're removing a tool that was developed intentionally to help reduce the risks," Scarlett said. "The failure to have those protections raises the risk, such that actions can result in accidents like Deepwater Horizon."

Trump Rollbacks for Fossil Fuel Industries Carry Steep Cost

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Name	Work History	Title	Status
Chris Greenfield	Ipsos, Tribal Worldwide, Canadian Tire, Unilever, Procter & Gamble, and TD Bank Group	President, Executive Vice President	Former
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Name	Chris Greenfield	Subscribe to see more	Subscribe to see more
Work History	Ipsos, Tribal Worldwide, Canadian Tire, Unilever, Procter & Gamble, and TD Bank Group	Subscribe to see more	Subscribe to see more
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