I Did My Job

by Steve Panten

September is over, and it marks the end of summer on the calendar, although there are still many riding days left. It was a very busy month for us in Madison and that means sending out a number of “Call To Actions” asking our members to contact their State Legislators and educate them on our position regarding what is important to us. Maybe the call to action was asking you to contact your legislators and state our position on a particular bill, or bill draft, or maybe it was to show up at a Public Hearing or meeting but either way….if a Call To Action is sent it’s because it is important for our success. Did you make the call? Did you reach out to your legislator to say that you cannot make it to a Public Hearing that is scheduled, but wanted to let them know your thoughts on the issue? These are the simple things that our members can do to help.

My focus as your Legislative Committee Chair is to pay attention to what is going on in Madison and in Washington DC and to understand who the players are, and what level of pressure needs to be applied for us to be successful. Sometimes it means just collecting information to bring back to the Legislative Committee and Board of Directors, so we can formulate a plan of attack. Sometimes it means taking time out of my workday to attend a meeting or hearing, and sometimes it’s to put together a Call To Action for our members to act on. In September, as in all the other previous months, I did my job. Did you? Did you make the calls? If you know who your legislator is, and you have their cell phone or office number, it is very easy to do. You don’t have to have a long conversation with them, but the conversation NEEDS to happen. If you do not know what the phone number or email address of your legislator is, did you take the time to go to legis@wisconsin.gov to find it so you can do your part to help? I did my job last month, did you do yours?

This past month we worked on trying to protect consumers from misfuelling their motorcycle, small engine, boat motor or ATV/UTV at the pump by opposing a bill that would allow E15 to be included in gas pumps that only have one nozzle for delivery. SB 349/AB 382 is being pushed by Kwik Trip in an effort for them not to have to replace fuel pumps as they transition their remaining 100+ stations to an E15 midgrade fuel. The problem with this system is that when a consumer purchases from a blended pump, they will unknowingly get a small amount of fuel that the previous person purchased because it is trapped inside the hose. If the person before you used E15 then you will get E15 in your motorcycle gas tank and that could be a major issue. E15 is against Federal Law to put in a motorcycle and will most likely void your manufacturer’s warranty. This holds true for your small engine, your boat motor or your ATV/UTV. Your warranty WILL be voided if the E15 does harm to your engine even though you may not have realized that you did it. Oh…and you just broke the law by misfuelling, even if you were not aware that you did.

We sent out a Call To Action for our members to help us stop this bill. I did my job getting the information out. Did you do yours? SB 349 was scheduled for a Public Hearing in the Senate Committee and we were there to oppose it. Testifying in support was Kwik Trip (a large business owner in the state) along with a couple of pro-ethanol groups. Testifying against it was ABATE, a representative from the MRF, and someone representing the marine industry (at least I think he was testifying against it but that’s another story). I want to thank Mike Halvorson, Wendy Lasko, John Reblin and Dave Dwyer for joining me in speaking against the bill. House of Harley (Milwaukee area) invited us to set up a booth at their location during the rally this past Labor Day weekend and we educated the attendees on what Kwik Trip was proposing. We also had preprinted letters for them to sign if they agreed with our position that we needed dedicated E10 hoses at the pumps. We were able to take 312 signed letters into the Public Hearing showing how important it is to us as motorcyclists that they oppose this bill. After the hearing we mailed all of the letters to the appropriate offices to show them that this is a concern from their constituents. I want to thank all of the volunteers for taking time out of their holiday weekend to work at the booth and get our message out. So, the question is…. did you do your job?

The committee hearing SB 349 moved the bill through to Executive Session a couple of weeks after the hearing where they unanimously voted to pass it out of committee and on to the Senate leadership to schedule the bill for a vote. This was a setback. We could not convince one person on the committee to opposed it. I think with more time, more phone calls and getting other groups involved, we may have been able to protect the consumer in Wisconsin, but big business won this time. This was an uphill battle since the lead author for the bill was Senator Feyen who was not only the bill author, but also chair of the committee that heard the bill and he is Assistant Majority Leader of the Senate. If we are going to stop this in the Senate, we will need our members to make the calls, send the emails, send letters and talk to their Senators when they are in the Districts. Yes, we need to do all of those things for every member of the State Senate especially Leadership. I did my job and now if we want to stop this, we will need ABATE members and friends to do their jobs.

Leadership in the Senate includes Senators Bewely, Feyen (good luck with that one) Fitzgerald, Marklein, Miller, Ringhand, Roth, Shilling, Steineke, Testin and Wangaard. The challenge is going to be that many of them are signed on to the bill. Your job is to acknowledge that they may have signed on or supported this bill but it’s not too late to step up to protect the consumers in the State. I expect to see the Assembly start to move this bill soon and we will need to throw everything that we have at them to convince them to oppose it. By everything we have, I mean you, the members. Great story time; A very active member called and asked me to reach out to Representative Ramthun to explain our position to him. You see, Representative Ramthun called her because he walked into his office to see a pile of letters sitting on his desk from ABATE members opposed to a bill that he knew nothing about. He realized that this must be an important issue to motorcyclists, so he called her to learn more. I was able to explain our position to him. In the meantime, he reached out to leadership in the Assembly to say they need to stop this bill. Not sure why he did not understand our position and needed me to clarify, because members should have already called him as a result of the Call To Action. I did my job….

OK…. enough on that. We oppose SB 349/AB 382 because even the little bit of E15 that is left in the hose from the past user is illegal to put in your motorcycle. That little bit could harm your engine but more importantly, that little bit WILL void your warranty. And that holds true for your small air-cooled engines that you filled up with from your 1-gallon gas can (did you even get ANY of the premium gas that you paid extra for?). Knowingly or not, your warranty is voided. Final point on this I promise; If there is such a small amount of fuel left in the hose, why can’t they include diesel fuel in the same nozzle? Because using diesel fuel will also harm your engine? Why don’t they include E85 in the same nozzle? Because E85 will harm most engines? And because using diesel fuel or E85 in your engines WILL void your warranty?

Moving on to our Autocycle Bill. Both the Senate and the Assembly versions are scheduled for a Public Hearing in late September. This is a great accomplishment for us, and we are looking for these bills to move forward and be signed into law, hopefully by the end of the year. Thank You for being patient and working hard to get the language that we needed to clearly define what a motorcycle is in the State of Wisconsin.

I hope to see a lot of people at our ABATE of Wisconsin Annual Meeting on October 13th. It is a weekend long event with many things being planned, including a banquet on Saturday night that includes a member recognition awards ceremony. Even if you can’t make it for the weekend festivities, please try to make it to the Annual Meeting on Sunday. This is the meeting where the Legislative Committee sets our legislative agenda for the upcoming year. Keep in mind that every member in good standing is a member of the legislative committee and your input is appreciated. Your vote on what we are going to work on during the next year is just as important as mine.

One final thing; At the Meeting of the Minds this year in Minnesota I was humbled when I was awarded the President’s Cup award from Hardtail and the Motorcycle Riders Foundation. This was awarded to me because of my willingness to step up and offer our support on issues in Washington DC. I say that I was humbled because I am only as strong as the members of ABATE of Wisconsin want to be. I did my job.

That’s it. Steve