ATLANTA
t’s not just increased demand that sends summertime gasoline prices soaring. It’s also the increased temperature.
As the temperature rises, liquid gasoline expands and the amount of energy in each gallon drops. Since gas is priced at a 60-degree standard and gas pumps don’t adjust for any temperature changes, motorists often get less bang for their buck in warmer weather.
Consumer watchdog groups warn that the temperature increase could end up costing consumers between 3 cents and 9 cents a gallon at the pump — adding up to hundreds of millions of dollars each year.
The effect could cost U.S. drivers more than $1.5 billion in the summertime, including $228 million to drivers in California alone, according to the House Oversight and Government Reform domestic policy subcommittee, which recently addressed it in hearings. The committee’s chairman, Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich, Ohio Democrat, has long been an advocate on the issue and has new clout as a member of the congressional majority.
Gas retailers oppose forcing stations to adjust their pumps as too costly, and asked Mr. Kucinich to call off the hearings and wait for more studies.
The issue has driven trial lawyers to prepare as many as 20 federal lawsuits accusing retailers of using simple physics to take advantage of consumers. Challenges have been filed in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Kansas, Missouri and New Jersey, among other states, and some are seeking class-action status.
The latest lawsuit, filed last week in federal district court in Georgia, asserts that distributors have been “unjustly enriched” by tens of millions of dollars. They did so by paying taxes on the fuel based on the colder industry standard but pocketing the taxes collected from customers when the temperature soared, it says.
“I don’t believe gas retailers should collect more in purported taxes than they pay the government,” said Bryan Vroon, one of the lawyers in the Georgia suit. “Gas prices are high enough without the over-collection of taxes.”
The “hot fuel” effect is a matter of simple physics.
Almost a century ago, the industry and regulators agreed to define a gallon of gasoline as 231 cubic inches at 60 degrees. But as the mercury rises and gasoline expands, it takes more than a gallon of gas to produce the same amount of energy as a gallon in colder weather.
U.S. gas retailers ignore the temperature swings and always dispense fuel as if it’s 60 degrees. As a result, gas is an average of about 5 degrees warmer than the federal standard, according to a study analyzed by Dick Suiter of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. But it’s worst in Southern and Western states where the temperatures are the most consistently warm.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the average U.S. temperature in May was 63 degrees; the average for all of 2006 was 55 degrees.
The impact isn’t lost on Carl Rittenhouse, a carpet worker from the northern Georgia town of Chatsworth.
“You can tell the difference between the time you fill up in the morning or night, or if you fill up in the middle of the day,” said Mr. Rittenhouse, who joined one of the lawsuits. “All you have to do is look at the fumes.”
The debate is reaching Capitol Hill.
Sen. Barbara Boxer, California Democrat, recently urged California lawmakers to take action. And Mr. Kucinich earlier this month called a hearing on the issue, labeling it “Big Oil’s Double Standard.”
“People are paying for gasoline they’re not getting,” said Mr. Kucinich, who is running for president.
Lawmakers don’t have to look very far for solutions.
In frigid Canada, where temperatures were giving consumers an edge, many gas stations voluntarily backed a program to add pumps that automatically adjust volumes based on temperature.
During the energy crisis in the 1970s, Hawaii decided to set a base fuel temperature of 80 degrees, meaning that consumers there get more bang for their buck because retailers now dispense 234 cubic inches of gas per gallon rather than 231.
The federal government is considering a similar change. The National Conference on Weights and Measures is scheduled to vote in July on whether to allow temperature regulation by retailers.
The upcoming decision is worrisome to some fuel distributors, who say the new equipment could force some independent dealers out of business. NATSO, a trade group representing truck-stop owners, estimates that each pump could cost between $1,500 to $3,800.
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