Oil Watchdog

07-3-07 by dugan

My Dad, the mechanical engineer and fanatical record-keeper, grumbled every summer when his gas mileage went down. He blamed "vapor in the tank" as the hot Midwest sun beat down. Now we know that the larger cause is "hot fuel," gasoline that goes into the tank hot, giving drivers less energy per gallon as it expands and providing more profit to dealers and distributors.

One big refinery and distribution company is finally admitting this, mostly because lawsuits over the "hot fuel" deception are nipping at the industry’s heels. Tesoro, a major refinery that acquired 268 Shell stations in the purchase of a big Southern California refinery from Shell, told an oil industry publication that it will post pump stickers warning that it sells gasoline "without adustment for possible variations in temperature."

Of course, what Tesoro should have done was lead the industry in selling fuel that is adjusted for temperature. A major nozzle company, Gilbarco, makes temperature-adjusting nozzles and they’re used almost universally in Canada (where the sellers profit because their gasoline stays colder than the "standard" of 60 degrees). But by acknowledging the deception to consumers, Tesoro breaks ranks with the rest of the industry.

Drivers should be angry. When gasoline is $3 a gallon and over, they’re losing about 50 cents a fill-up. Californians are cheated of about $450 million a year on "hot fuel," and the tab nationwide is more than $2 billion a year.
One positive effect of the tobacco-like warning labels is that they will push government to act. California regulators have said they see no bar to using temperature-adjusting pumps, but state legislators have done no more than propose two years of "study" and "development" of solutions before even proposing new rules.

That’s ridiculous. The Tesoro labels, at the refiner’s own stations and its newly acquired Shell stations, must push legislators to strengthen the state’s "hot fuel" bill, AB 868.

There’s also an outside chance that a national quasi-regulatory group, the National Conference on Weights and Measures, will act to allow or order fuel temperature compensation. It’s being pushed but not ordered to do anything by a few members of Congress.  

 If you agree, call its sponsor: Assemblyman Mike Davis, (916) 319-2048. Tell the aide who answers that you want AB868 amended to fix hot fuel now, not three years from now. He’ll get the message.
  If you want to know more about the "hot fuel" ripoff, look here.