Fall 2014 issue of Horizons

Succession plans are not something that are easily done, put in a drawer and checked off a “to do” list. They take time and careful thought to create, implement and must be continually reevaluated and revised as circumstances change. Lack of time and avoidance of tough family issues are often huge obstacles to working on succession plans. For this reason, it is often intimidating and difficult for family members who work together in the family business to discuss. Sometimes a family member who leads the business is so critical to the success of the company it is difficult to imagine what to do without him or her. If that person does become incapacitated, even temporarily, it could cause the failure of the company while employees and other family members scramble to try and fill the void. Start Small One way to overcome this obstacle is to start small by developing an emergency succession plan. Pick one key leader and assume that they suddenly become disabled and are unable to fulfill their regular responsibilities. The most important responsibilities of that key leader need to be identified so that plans can be made to make sure those responsibilities are taken care of. Other members of management should be involved. Emergencies can bring out the best in people and employees will want to know how they can help. Since this is a hypothetical exercise no one should feel threatened to discuss changes that might occur and should be more likely to contribute and express their unbiased thoughts. When that happens emotions and tensions will be running high and mistakes will be made.

Natural Gas Fueled Versus Gasoline Fueled Vehicles

Since 1994, natural gas used as a transportation fuel has been sold in Gasoline Gallon Equivalent (GGE) units to allow consumers to compare the cost of natural gas fueled vehicles to that of gasoline fueled vehicles. Because of the increased usage of natural gas by heavy vehicle operators, industry and governmental regulatory groups are debating whether to create a Diesel Gallon Equivalents (DGE) units standard to facilitate the comparison of natural gas to diesel fuel or even scrap the current system and use one standard based on the metric system which would use kilograms. There is also discussion about the need to update the GGE unit of measurement, if it were to continue, to compensate for new blends of gasoline which have changed energy content by adding ethanol and other additives. Supporters of the metric system argue that using GGE & DGE units imply that comparisons of the cost and quality of gasoline and diesel fuels with natural gas can be made which is not accurate or realistically possible. Of course, taxes are involved. Fuel taxes go into the Highway Trust Fund which pays for highway repairs and improvements. This creates a direct connection between the users of the highways and the cost to expand and maintain them. The system has worked well for decades but the growth in the use of alternative fuels is rapidly making that method of taxation for highway use obsolete. Natural gas and diesel fuels are currently taxed at 24.3 cents per gallon even though 1.7 gallons of natural gas contain the same amount of energy as a gallon of diesel fuel. This means the trucks powered by natural gas will pay more taxes into the Highway Trust Fund than trucks fueled by diesel. A different aspect of the same problem is growing as more consumers are purchasing electric passenger vehicles. Under the fuel tax system, electric vehicles will never pay taxes into the Highway Trust Fund even though they use the same streets and highways as vehicles whose fuel is taxed at the pump.

It will probably become apparent that no one person will be able to completely

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