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Summer Heat Means Less Gas at the Pump

Activists Seek Price Adjustment on Hot Days

By Joe Benton
ConsumerAffairs.com

July 31, 2007

The station's environmental reporter, Paul Day, explains that pumps in most parts of the countryare not set to take temperature into account when selling fuel. But hotter gas expands, meaning it takes up more space. That means drivers are getting less fuel for the same price when the gas is warmer.

Gasoline and diesel are supposed to be sold at 60 degrees as part of an industry standard but in the summer, the actual temperature can be as much as 80 degrees, according to Lisa Burnett, a Suncor spokeswoman.

The price of fuel is adjusted for temperature when it's loaded onto tankers at refineries, Day reported. The so-called "hot fuel" is then transported to retail stations and put into underground holding tanks. It can be sold quickly without much cooling.

The temperature of fuel sold at Colorado pumps has reached as high as 78 degrees, according to inspections. That's an average of 20 different service stations, according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology, KCNC-TV reported.

"If it's a 25 gallon fill-up, they would be losing a quart for every fill-up," said John Siebert of Kansas City based Owner Operator Independent Driver's Association. The group represents more than 150,000 truckers who are lobbying for change.

"What we're looking for is equity in the marketplace," said Siebert.

He favors retro-fitting fuel pumps across America with temperature compensation devices. In Canada, it is already a common practice.

But the oil industry disagrees.

"We think right now, there isn't a need for it in Colorado," said Roy Turner of Colorado Petroleum Marketers.

Turner says the cold winters in Colorado create equity because more gas than normal is sold for the same price when the fuel contracts and takes up less space.

"The consumer could be losing a small amount during the summer, but they're going to make it up during the winter," he said. "So it balances itself out."

Nationwide, "hot fuel" is estimated to cost consumers $2.5 billion.

A lawsuit filed late last year accused 17 oil companies and gasoline and diesel retailers of overcharging at the pump for fuel heated above the industry standard.

The class-action lawsuit charges the petroleum retailers with breach of sales contract and consumer fraud and seeks relief for motor fuel consumers in the states of California, Texas, Florida, Arizona, New Jersey, North Carolina and Virginia. It calls for remedies in the form of restitution and the installation of temperature correction equipment for pumps that dispense gasoline and diesel fuel.

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