WHEREAS: Governor Minner has proposed a 5 cent per gallon additional tax on gasoline sold in Delaware, starting on September 1, 2007; and

WHEREAS: The Controller General's Office has projected estimated revenues from such a tax at $23.4 million in FY 2008 and $28.6 million in FY 2009; and

WHEREAS: The Great Stone Anchorage in the Delaware Bay is reputedly the only sheltered east coast port between Maine and Texas capable of accommodating oil tankers with drafts as large as 55 feet; and

WHEREAS: Lightering of such tankers - - transfer of bulk product to barges or tankers of lesser draft to deliver product to refineries on the Delaware River and elsewhere on the eastern seaboard - - has been ongoing at the Great Stone Anchorage since before the June 28, 1971 effective date of Delaware's Coastal Zone Act (CZA); and

WHEREAS: Corporate entities involved in such lightering have never been granted CZA permits, and only one such entity (Maritrans) has been granted an Air Quality permit covering the activity; and

WHEREAS: In 2005, Maritrans requested an increase in the maximum amount of lightering permissible under its Air Quality permit(1) beyond the 100 million barrel ceiling (12 month rolling average basis) then permissible; and

WHEREAS: Imposing a $1 per barrel tax on oil lightered at Great Stone Anchorage would produce revenues in the neighborhood of $100 million per year; and

WHEREAS: Since a barrel of crude oil produces about 26 gallons of gasoline (along with other hydrocarbons), a $1 per barrel tax on lightered oil would have an impact on the price of gasoline no larger than 4 cents per gallon; and

WHEREAS: Because the revenues from such a tax would be spread over more than just Delaware, a tax of $1 per barrel of oil (less than 4 cents/gallon on gasoline) would produce more than three times as much Delaware revenue as the 5 cent per gallon additional tax proposed by Governor Minner.

NOW THEREFORE IT IS RESOLVED BY CIVIC LEAGUE FOR NEW CASTLE COUNTY THAT

A tax no smaller than $1 per barrel of oil lightered at Great Stone Anchorage in the Delaware Bay be imposed with an effective date no later than September 1, 2007 and that the first $1 per barrel of such revenue be earmarked for Delaware's Transportation Trust Fund.

ADOPTED (in concept) without dissent
General Membership Meeting of May 15, 2007

Attest: _________________