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One of the oldest and most -contested bits of advice for saving on gas is that by filling up your tank in the morning, when it’s cool, you’ll get more gas for your money. The idea is that a gallon is a gallon is a gallon, but when you’re talking about gas, what’s inside that gallon is subject to change. The infinitesimally small molecules that make up a gallon of gas are tightly condensed when they’re cool. They expand when heated. That means a gallon of warm gas will contain fewer molecules than a gallon of cool gas. The warmer the fuel, the fewer molecules the consumer will receive in a gallon. The science of that is true, and experts say that warm gas may have actually cost individual drivers more at the gas pump generations ago, when gas stations stored fuel in all sorts of unregulated ways. But these days, gas stations uniformly use 10,000 to 30,000-gallon fiberglass tanks. Because the tanks are insulated and underground, the temperature of their contents does not change dramatically with the hot and cool cycles of the day. Thus, say oil industry experts, the idea that hot gas is costing you more money is a myth. Why, then, consumer advocates ask, are oil companies giving drivers outside the United States a price break in hot weather? It’s true. In Canada, U.S. oil companies give gas stations a price break in hot weather, and stations pass that discount on to motorists. This is done by using pumps that monitor the temperature of the gas. They pump more –a “bigger” gallon--when the gas is hot. The practice is known as “temperature compensation.” The amount of compensation for a single driver may be small. We found some experts claiming the amount of savings may be little more than 9 cents a gallon for an individual driver. But for cash-strapped U.S. drivers struggling to cope with the whirlwind rise in gas prices over the last year, that 9 cents could make a dramatic difference. Groups like the Foundation For Taxpayer and Consumer Rights and web sites like Turn Down Hot Fuel are calling for temperature compensation for American drivers. Even Representative Dennis Kucinich of Ohio asked "How does the oil industry justify refusing to use temperature compensation for retail sales in the United States, while universally and voluntarily using them at retail in Canada." In fact, temperature compensation is already being used in the United States, in Hawaii. That’s because sensors inside the storage tanks record and delivery detailed data on the state of the gas. That data revealed that consumer losses from expanded gas were ten times greater in warm states than in cold states. So Hawaii pressed for laws to protect its consumers. Nonetheless, gas company executives continue to insist that using temperature compensation pumps in the United States won’t make any difference to individual motorists. Said a representative of Shell Oil Company, ‘If retailers sell larger gallons, they will charge more for larger gallons.” In 2007, the U.S Congress began investigating the hot fuel issue, but to date no legislation has been passed. If you want to weigh in on the issue, consider contacting your state representatives in Congress, along with your state governor and let them know that you favor laws requiring automatic temperature compensation at all retail gas pumps. |
