Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Ranking Minority Member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Environment and Hazardous Materials, has introduced a bill that would reimpose taxes on the petroleum and chemical industries. The taxes, which were dedicated to the Superfund Trust Fund, expired in 1995. Base oil suppliers would pass through the taxes in their sales to independent lubricant manufacturers.

As we have discussed in recent issues of FlashPoint, the Superfund Trust Fund is expected to run out of money within two years. Although monies for environmental clean-ups have been funded from the general treasury in recent years, the problem of what to do with the Trust Fund remains unsolved. Rep. Pallone’s bill would reinstate the 9.7 cents-per-barrel tax on petroleum, a corporate environmental income tax of 0.12 percent of taxable income in excess of $2 million, and a tax on 42 different chemicals.

DENVER -- Jiffy Lube International Inc. terminated eight Denver-area franchises held by Colorado Lubrication Inc. last week after a Denver Post article detailed allegations by current and former Colorado Lubrication employees from three stores who said they were instructed to tell customers that they put Pennzoil in their cars even though they used a less-expensive oil. The news broke just as Shell announced that it was purchasing Pennzoil-Quaker State, which owns the Jiffy Lube chain.

Colorado Lubrication Vice President Jerry Whitcomb acknowledged that the company had not been using the Pennzoil. Dirk Sparks, manager of one of the Jiffy Lube locations, said the practice had been going on for a year, but Whitcomb said he was aware of it happening only for the past four months. He denied, however, that he told employees to lie.