Lewis Oil Background
Lewis Oil is a 60 Year Old, family-owned, business. The technical term for the industry is “jobber” or “Marketer”. Lewis Oil serves a 14 county area in North Central Florida, delivering 30 million gallons of petroleum products to convenience stores, farms, construction sites, and most importantly, act as First Responders for local, state, and federal emergency agencies and large grocery and medical concerns. Other customers include Shands and North Florida Regional Hospitals, the University of Florida, all local TV and radio stations, and the local power plants. Heating fuel is delivered during the winter.
It is important to understand the difference between Jobbers and retail gas stations. First, there are only 75 jobbers serving twenty-five million Floridians. Only jobbers have the infrastructure to transport, deliver, and store gasoline and oil. A typical gas station has about 24,000 gallons of fuel on hand and cannot get gas on their own except from a jobber. In times of crisis or in emergency conditions, jobbers can move a million gallons of gas directly into the command centers or fueling stations of the First Responders. It is correct to classify jobbers as critical First Responders.
The basic concerns of Florida’s jobbers, much like most businesses, center on government regulations, environmental oversight, and taxes. Leadership on energy related committees is of interest to the FPMA and jobbers like Lewis Oil. Issues like the RFS (ethanol), the Domestic Fuels Act of 2012 (HB 4345), the sub-issue of E-15 (of particular concern to humid Florida), and the new EPA UST rules are on all jobbers’ list of critical issues. Beyond energy issues, many jobbers also own convenience stores, which are getting hit hard with a myriad of new and onerous ADA rules and trivial lawsuits.
The Lewis Oil Company is active community members, active in local and state politics, donating thousands of dollars to local charities and conservative candidates.