A gallon of regular unleaded gasoline at the Shell Station at the Shell
Station at the corner of Calhoun and Meeting streets cost $3.969 Monday. The warm gas found in Southern states can help drive up prices at the pump.
Thanks to rules set up decades ago by the petroleum industry, you’re
probably not getting your money’s worth when you fill your gas tank on
hot days like today.
Unlike milk, kerosene and even beer, gasoline is measured as though it’s always 60 degrees outside.
At that temperature, a gallon takes up 231 cubic inches.
But at 90 degrees, today’s expected high, it takes up about 235 cubic inches.
By law, service stations don’t take this temperature change into
account. So on hot days, you still get that 231 cubic inches —
literally less bang for your buck.
With gas and diesel prices teetering at $4 a gallon, a growing
chorus of consumer watchdogs, trucking groups and others say people in
warm-weather climates are getting ripped off.
Angry customers have filed federal class-action lawsuits on behalf of consumers in several states, including North Carolina.
Several states are studying how much it would cost to require
service stations to install equipment that takes temperature changes
into account.
Billions of dollars are at stake.
In 2006, when gas was $3 a gallon, an investigative report in the
Kansas City (Missouri) Star estimated that hot fuel cost motorists
$2.88 billion across the country and $61 million in South Carolina. At
today’s prices, the cost to South Carolinians would be $83 million.
Even though gasoline is stored in underground tanks, it’s often warmer than the 60-degree standard, especially in the South.
Between 2002 and 2004, the National Institute of Standards measured
temperatures in tanks at 1,000 stations in 48 states, including South
Carolina. It was the most-thorough study of the hot fuel issue.
The agency found that the average temperature of fuel in underground
tanks across the country was 65 degrees, five degrees more than the
national standard.
In the Sun Belt, the difference was more striking. In South
Carolina, the average temperature of gas in underground service station
tanks was 73.3 degrees.
During the summer, average temperatures in the tanks hovered above
80 degrees — 20 degrees above the 60-degree benchmark, the agency
found. During winter, the average temperature was 63 degrees, still
higher than the benchmark.
Where does all this warm gasoline come from? During summer months,
fuel trucks often deliver loads of warm gasoline to service stations.
Critics of the 60-degree standard point out that today’s double-walled
underground storage tanks then act like giant thermoses, keeping
gasoline at roughly the same temperature it was when it was delivered.
While some consumers in Northern areas benefit from the industry’s
60-degree standard, people in Southern and Western states might pay as
much as 7 to 9 cents more a gallon on hot days, said Judy Dugan,
research director of Oilwatchdog.org, a group fighting to change how
gasoline is dispensed.
South Carolina officials don’t favor changing equipment to
compensate for temperature changes because federal regulators have yet
to take a position on the matter, said Carol P. Fulmer, who runs the
weights and measurement division for the S.C. Department of Agriculture.
"A lot of consumer groups say it will save consumers, but it’s expensive to change pumps," he said.
The hot-fuels debate is "an incredibly high-impact situation," added
Judy Cardin, chairwoman of the National Conference on Weights and
Measures, the government panel that sets gasoline standards.
She said researchers estimate it would cost service stations $2
billion to $4 billion to equip their pumps to compensate for changes in
temperature. "We’ve had rural station owners say, ‘I’m not going to
stay in business if I have to implement this.’ "
The oil industry and regulators set the 60-degree standard about a
century ago, based on the premise that it roughly matched the average
temperature nationwide.
Since then, oil interests have fought against changing the standard
in the United States while doing the opposite in Canada. Average yearly
temperatures in Canada are generally lower than 60 degrees, effectively
giving drivers there a break.
Hawaii, which has a mean temperature of about 80 degrees, is the only state that adjusts for temperature.
Trucking groups such as the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers
Association want fuel measured according to temperature, saying that
hot fuels cost drivers hundreds of dollars a year.
In South Carolina, truckers and other diesel-users will pay $25.6
million extra for diesel this year because it’s not adjusted for
temperature, said John Siebert, project manager of the group. He calls
the hot fuel issue one of the petroleum industry’s "best-kept secrets."
Reach Tony Bartelme at [email protected] or 937-5554.
