The Connecticut Petroleum Council is a trade association representing major oil companies, refiners, terminal operators, pipelines and others in the petroleum industry. During the 2007 and 2009 legislative sessions, bills were proposed to ban zone pricing of gasoline, thus prohibiting wholesalers from varying their prices to retailers based on supply and demand. The Connecticut Petroleum Council retained GBPR during both sessions to defeat this legislation by raising awareness of the importance of zone pricing in order to keep local, individually-owned gas stations in business. To accomplish this, GBPR carried out a full-service media relations plan including the submission of opinion editorials (op-eds) from Connecticut gas station owners to their respective local papers, outreach to public affairs-focused television and radio shows and editorial board meetings with major daily newspapers across the state.