You may not be getting all you pay for at the pump
Here’s another way you’re getting pinched at the pump: Paying for, say, five gallons of fuel doesn’t mean you’re getting a full five gallons.
Fuel expands when temperatures rise. And because gasoline station nozzles don’t adjust for the change, motorists and truckers end up with less of the energy that keeps engines humming.
The shortfall means that California motorists could be losing 3 cents on every gallon, by one estimate. But the pennies add up, especially with the average gas price soaring to a state record of $3.489 a gallon Tuesday. With drivers in the state using almost 16 billion gallons of gas a year, hot fuel could be costing them nearly $480 million annually.
The overcharge is rampant, legal and hard for consumers to spot. But it’s no secret. Oil companies acknowledge it and regulators allow it. One company developed a device to fix the disparity but shelved the product after dealers resisted. Now the issue is generating heat among consumer activists, lawmakers and beleaguered fuel pumpers.
“It’s a real big deal because it comes out of our pockets,” said trucker Freddy Chulo, who on a recent day poured 60 gallons of diesel into his rig at the Commerce Truck Stop.
The hot-fuel issue is gaining traction among truckers like the 30-year-old Chulo, who spends $60,000 a year on diesel. A caller to XM Satellite Radio host Dale Sommers, known as the Truckin’ Bozo, complained that he filled his 100-gallon tank on a hot desert evening but discovered the next morning that the fuel had cooled and contracted.
“He had lost three gallons,” said Sommers, whose listeners call him “the Boze” for short. “At $3 a gallon, that’s $9 he lost.”
It can amount to a small inequity in places where summer losses are offset by winter gains. But the potential costs loom larger in California, where warm weather is the norm, fuel prices are among the highest in the nation and gas consumption outpaces that of every other state.
Consumer advocates want U.S. fuel retailers to install nozzles that compensate for temperature changes.
“It’s outrageous that Americans ... cannot rely on an honest measurement for every gallon of gasoline they pump,” Jamie Court, president of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, said in a recent letter to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Court’s group estimates that California drivers are losing at least 3 cents a gallon.
Oil companies and dealers dispute the group’s estimate and deny that they are pocketing money at customers’ expense. Installing costly temperature-sensing equipment would push prices higher, said Lisa Mullings, president of a trade group for truck stops and travel plazas. “There’s absolutely no evidence that it’s needed,” she said.
The fight has gained momentum, though.
Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich, an Ohio Democrat running for president, will host a congressional subcommittee hearing June 7 on gasoline concerns, including hot fuel. “This is a huge consumer issue,” he said.
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) recently urged the governor and state legislature to get involved. Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles), a spokesman said, is “looking to see what action, if any, we could take.”
Truck drivers and others filed suit last year in California and several other states, accusing oil companies, service stations and truck stops of cheating customers and padding profits by skirting the temperature issue.
The science behind the controversy isn’t in dispute.
The U.S. government defines a gallon of gas this way: At 60 degrees, a gallon is 231 cubic inches. But when fuel is warmer than 60 degrees, the liquid expands. When it’s colder, the fuel contracts.
U.S. oil companies and distributors account for temperature when they sell to each other. Wholesale facilities are equipped with devices that adjust volumes to bring the gallon tally in line with the 60-degree standard.
“What temperature compensation does is provide equity to all parties,” said Dick Suiter, weights and measures coordinator at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, an arm of the Commerce Department that sets federal standards for fuel sales.
That equity, however, stops short of retail fuel pumps. Service stations dispense gas and diesel as if every drop is flowing at 60 degrees -- and they charge customers as if they are getting government-standard gallons.
Last year, fuel equipment maker Gilbarco Veeder-Root of Greensboro. N.C., which dominates the market, received state certification to sell a device that automatically adjusts for temperature. But the company abandoned plans to push the device after getting pressure from its service-station customers.
President Martin Gafinowitz said in a March letter to Boxer that there was “concern” among the company’s customers and their trade groups about introducing the devices in California. The company, he said, would make the necessary adjustments to its equipment “as soon as there is sufficient market demand to justify doing so.” Gilbarco representatives didn’t return phone calls for comment.
Jay McKeeman, government relations director for the California Independent Oil Marketers Assn., acknowledged that Gilbarco’s move caused “friction” between the company and its core customer base.
“A company that’s in the market has to listen to its customers,” McKeeman said.
In Canada, where cold weather would give consumers the advantage at the pump, most fuel retailers were quick to invest voluntarily in the devices.
Lawmakers in Texas and Missouri are weighing bills that would force retailers to add temperature-adjusting pumps. Hawaii requires retail pumps to dispense fuel on the assumption that it is 80 degrees, instead of the standard 60 degrees.
Andre van der Valk, who owns four gas stations in Southern California, said dealers pass along any temperature-related gains to consumers by lowering prices.
“It’s not like the dealer gets this bonus and sticks it in his pocket,” Van der Valk said.
Adding temperature-sensing equipment could cost retailers several thousand dollars per pump, McKeeman said. And the data supporting the change is spotty, he said, so “nobody really knows whether this is an issue or not.”
A sampling by federal regulators of fuel temperatures in underground tanks at service stations from 2002 to 2004 found a wide range above and below 60 degrees. The limited survey in California found fuel temperatures averaging 74.8 degrees, with a low monthly average of 64 degrees and a high of 83.
“The information that they got from California really shocked me,” said Dennis Johannes, director of the state Division of Measurement Standards. “The average temperatures were a lot higher than what we expected.”
Johannes launched statewide fuel temperature tests last month. Readings will be taken through December, but an early report “tells me that already the fuel is over 60 degrees, and we’re not even into summer.”
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elizabeth.douglass@latimes.com
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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)
Questions & answers
What’s the problem?
Gasoline and diesel expand or contract, depending on the fuel’s temperature. A gallon sold at the government-standard 60 degrees has more energy in it than a gallon sold at 80 degrees. U.S. pumps can’t tell the difference, so consumers pay the same price for both.
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Why should I care?
Gasoline expands or contracts 1% for every 15-degree change in the fuel’s temperature. Diesel volumes change 0.6% per 15-degree change. The difference seems small, but it adds up fast in California, where fuel temperatures can be much higher than 60 degrees and prices are steep. It’s a bigger hit for truckers, whose rigs gulp 20,000 gallons or more of diesel a year.
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How high is the cost to consumers?
The overpayment depends on the temperature of the fuel and the retail price of gas, and both are in constant flux. A consumer group believes the problem costs California drivers an extra 3 cents a gallon.
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Should I buy fuel in the morning or when temperatures are cooler?
No. The delivery temperature is key, because most fuel sits in underground tanks that act like big Thermos bottles. Even if a station receives a load of gas at 5 a.m., if it’s coming straight from the refinery, the fuel will be hot and stay that way.
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Is there a fix?
Yes. Gas stations could install equipment that recalculates volumes based on the fuel’s temperature. In California, similar equipment is in use for wholesale fuel purchases.
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Why haven’t regulators stepped in?
Federal and state officials believed the fuel at gas stations stayed close to 60 degrees because it was stored underground and that any variations would even out over the year or be too small to matter to consumers.
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What’s changed?
Gas stations switched to the double-walled underground tanks. Also, an industrywide shift to fewer, higher-volume gas stations means fuel spends less time underground. And rising prices have added urgency to getting a fair deal at the pump.
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What’s being done?
California officials are recording fuel temperatures to quantify the problem. And government regulators are reviewing a proposal that clears the way for fuel retailers to install temperature-adjusting devices.
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Source: Times research
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60
U.S. government’s benchmark temperature for gasoline and diesel sales
74.8
Average fuel temperature in California
12
Number of states where the average fuel temperature was more than 10 degrees above the government standard
1
Number of states where the average fuel temperature was more than 10 degrees below the government standard
3
Cents per gallon that hot fuel may be costing California motorists
15.8
Billions of gallons of gasoline consumed in California last year
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Sources: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, State Board of Equalization
