Banding Together for Regulatory Success
If you ever wonder whether your ILMA membership matters, here’s one reason why: Our voice is much louder when we speak together as an industry.
The following story, which recounts how ILMA joined with other trade associations to nip potentially harmful used oil regulations in the bud, first appeared in the September 2024 issue of Compoundings magazine.
Banding Together
A closer look back at The Part 279 Coalition’s successful intervention
Blink-182, Five Finger Death Punch and The Part 279 Coalition. If you asked 100 people which of these is not a musical group, you might get an evenly divided split of responses.
But most ILMA members could readily identify it’s the last of this trio that doesn’t make music. Instead, The Part 279 Coalition stopped a potentially harmful Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) action in its tracks.
Part 279 is the EPA’s Used Oil Management Standards. For over 30 years, the language in Part 279 has created a regulatory structure to ensure the responsible collection and recycling of used oil and oily wastewater.
An ad hoc entity of eight organizations that included ILMA, the effort was led by Scott Parker, the executive director of NORA, the trade association that represents over 300 leading companies in the liquid recycling and environmental services industries. For ILMA, General Counsel Jeff Leiter served as a liaison on the endeavor.
NORA and ILMA have worked together for decades to ensure that regulations support the responsible collection and recycling/re-refining of used oil. Once they reach the end of their useful life, billions of gallons of lubricants produced by ILMA members are collected by NORA members, many of which re-refine the lubricants as base oil to be used by ILMA members.
The coalition succeeded in prevailing on the EPA to drop its plan to discuss used oil as part of its upcoming Resource Conservation Recovery Act “Permitting Updates Proposed Rulemaking” project.
What follows are insights from the journey.
Keep Your Antennae Up
Early detection is pivotal. “One of our members, Anita Decina of Crystal Clean, happened to be sitting on a webinar on a completely different subject where this was brought up,” Parker said. “She then brought it to our attention, which was so crucial. We could get it in the nip-it-at-the-bud stage.”
Upon learning of the EPA’s plans, NORA staff alerted its board and overall membership, soon receiving board direction on next steps. That included reaching out to other associations that would be adversely affected by changes that could result. Early on, Parker presented a webinar to various industry groups outlining the situation.
In addition to ILMA, those organizations are the Automotive Oil Change Association, American Petroleum Institute, Energy Marketers of America, National Association of Manufacturers, National Automobile Dealers Association, Service Station Dealers of America and Tire Industry Association.
“The best associations are member led and staff run,” Parker noted. “Getting that direction set us up for success.”
Speak with One Voice
Through that broader communication, questions arose based on each organization’s respective needs and desires.
“Even though we have different interests, we were able to identify common areas of concern that we could rally around,” Parker said. “That allowed us to avoid the divide-and-conquer trap. How about unite and win? “
"We were speaking with one voice , and that allowed us to demonstrate leadership on this topic.”
Identify the Communication Channel
Next it was time to identify the best avenue for communicating the coalition’s concerns.
“I was in touch with the EPA and that was helpful, but we needed more help — we weren’t able to get the meetings we were looking for,” Parker recalled. “Then I contacted the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy, and they set up the meeting for us with the EPA and other officials.”
At that Sept. 13, 2023, meeting, Parker and two other NORA representatives, Ken Bentfeld, senior vice president of waste management company Valicor, and Jack Waggener, NORA senior consultant, conveyed The Part 279 Coalition’s key message.
“NORA asked, ‘Why are you asking this question about used oil? We have a regulatory program that responsibly handles that material,’” Parker said. “They mentioned they had heard anecdotal stories, but they didn’t have any actual information or details to back those stories up. We were able to address their concerns.”
In late November, word came from an EPA representative: “We wanted to loop back with you to let you know that, at this point, we no longer plan to discuss used oil in the upcoming Permitting Updates Proposed Rulemaking.”