State Weights and Measures Directors to vote today on specs for equipment adjusting fuel price to temperature

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (July 16, 2008) -- The California Energy Commission has confirmed that the state's motorists are significantly overpaying for gasoline and diesel thanks to hidden "hot fuel" costs. The study found that gasoline was sold in California at an average year-round temperature of 72 degrees, which means that drivers are getting almost 1% less than they pay for.

Gasoline expands as the temperature rises, approximately 1% for every 15 degrees Fahrenheit. A century-old industry standard fixes the assumed temperature at point of sale at 60 degrees. The CEC found that the average year-round temperature of gasoline sold in California is 72 degrees (nationally, the average is near 65 degrees). Nationwide, if prices hold in the $4 range for a year, drivers will give up over $3 billion to hot fuel sales.

The CEC temperature data was released in time to influence this week's meeting of the National Conference on Weights and Measures, which is considering whether to recommend to the states that fuel pumps be equipped to adjust fuel price to temperature. The Conference will vote early this week on whether to approve specifications for automatic temperature compensation devices, a necessary first step before deciding whether to mandate temperature adjustment. .Such equipment is installed in over 95% of fuel pumps in Canada, where the cold climate provides fuel retailers with an incentive to adjust fuel to temperature.

"California has confirmed that fuel is routinely sold at temperatures high enough to short-change motorists year-round, and the same is true across the southern and southwest U.S," said Judy Dugan, research director for the nonprofit Consumer Watchdog. "The weights and measures officials who should have fixed this years ago refuse to take their responsibility to consumers seriously. It's time for lawmakers to step in and end this ripoff."

In February, a Federal District Judge in Kansas City denied a motion to dismiss a national hot fuel lawsuit, with plaintiffs in 26 states Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri is sponsoring legislation that would require retail temperature adjustment over a period of several years.

The nation's leading advocate for independent truckers, the Missouri-based Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA), supports the lawsuit. Hot fuel sales hit independent drivers particularly hard, costing truckers whose margins are already squeezed to the vanishing point by soaring fuel costs hundreds of dollars per year. While diesel expands somewhat less than gasoline in heat, it's also sold at higher average temperatures -- 73.8 degrees on average in California, according to the CAC study. That's an average of over $8 extra per fill-up for a 200-gallon diesel tank year-round, and over $11 per fill-up from June-September. In those months, according to data from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the average fuel temperature, in California and across the southern states, exceeds 80 degrees.

"For many of our drivers, paying extra for hot fuel is the last straw, especially at today's prices," said John Siebert, hot fuel project team leader at OOIDA. "When you're paying through the nose, you want to at least get what you paid for."

For more information about hot fuel, please visit Consumer Watchdog's www.oilwatchdog.org and OOIDA's http://turndownhotfuel.com.