Gas Station Rip off games

[n2tattoos.lol]

edit: apparently, hot temp fuel expands causing the pumps to give a false reading.


Costco offer would fix hot fuel

By STEVE EVERLY
The Kansas City Star

The sale of hot fuel above the industry standard of 60 degrees has been estimated to cost U.S. consumers more than $2 billion a year. But drivers in Kansas, Missouri and elsewhere would get their money?s worth under a Costco plan.

For the first time in the U.S., a gasoline retailer has plans to fix hot fuel.

Costco Warehouse Inc. has agreed to change its fuel pumps in several states so they compensate customers for the lower energy value of hotter-than-average gas and diesel.

Costco?s precedent-setting plan would settle its part of a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan., against oil companies and retailers doing business in several states.

The settlement, which still needs court approval, also would end what had been unanimous opposition by the oil industry and retailers to selling U.S. consumers temperature-adjusted fuel.

Besides agreeing to change its pumps in the hottest regions, Costco promises in states such as Kansas and Missouri not to buy temperature-adjusted fuel wholesale and then sell non-adjusted fuel to customers.

The sale of hot fuel ? above the industry standard of 60 degrees ? has been estimated to cost U.S. consumers more than $2 billion a year.

Attorneys for the oil companies and their trade group, the American Petroleum Institute, did not return calls seeking comment on the settlement, nor did the Petroleum Marketers Association of America, which represents fuel retailers.

Those groups oppose temperature adjustment at retail and in the past have said that the cost of fixing the problem would simply be passed on to consumers, erasing any benefit to them.

But supporters of temperature-adjusting for consumers say the Costco settlement is a first step to ensuring that people buying gas will get their money?s worth.

In these economic times, every penny saved is a penny earned, Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, said Wednesday.

?It is my hope that other companies will follow Costco?s lead and do the right thing to protect the American consumer,? she said.

Attorney Bob Horn, co-lead counsel in the hot-fuel suits, said he expected to have discussions with other defendants within a week.

Referring to Costco, Horn said, ?We finally have someone stepping up and saying (temperature-adjusted fuel) is right and fair to U.S. consumers.?

In a series of stories in 2006, The Kansas City Star estimated that hot fuel cost consumers $2.3 billion annually. That is because, put simply, fuel expands and contracts depending on temperature.

At the longtime industry standard of 60 degrees, the 231-cubic-inch U.S. gallon puts out a certain amount of energy. But fuel is often sold at higher temperatures, causing it to expand and the amount of energy to decline for each gallon dispensed.

At other stages in the fuel-delivery chain, the industry routinely adjusts volume for temperature, using the 60-degree industry standard. In Canada, where colder temperatures tend to keep fuel below the standard, the oil industry has favored retail temperature adjustment and taken in more revenue as a result.

But retail pumps in America give consumers 231 cubic inches per gallon, regardless of temperature.

Costco now wants to change that.

It will change its gas pumps to make the adjustment in the warmest states where it has stores, roughly the bottom half of the country, including California, Texas and Florida ? the heaviest users of gasoline. The wholesale fuel that Costco buys in those states is temperature-adjusted.

The settlement deals differently with Missouri, Kansas, Maryland, Indiana, New Jersey, Oregon and Pennsylvania. Costco stores would not be required to make changes to their pumps in those states, where the company doesn?t buy temperature-adjusted fuel at wholesale.

?Hurrah for Costco,? said Judy Dugan, research director for Consumer Watchdog, a California public interest group. ?Costco has a reputation for consumer friendliness, and frankly this carries that forward.?

Dugan said Costco had been under pressure from the oil industry not to settle.

The agreement gives Costco some wiggle room in meeting its terms, especially if the oil industry retaliates by stopping fuel supplies to the chain or raising its price because of the settlement.

The agreement also would not require Costco to have temperature adjustment at retail if it became illegal to do so.

The oil industry is already pushing a proposal at the National Conference on Weights and Measures ? which sets model laws for states to follow ? to bar temperature adjustment for consumers while continuing it at wholesale.

Costco?s settlement agreement was filed late Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan., where dozens of hot-fuel lawsuits were consolidated in 2007. The consolidated suit seeks to become a class action representing millions of consumers.

http://www.kansascity.com/128/story/1157480.html

Steve Everly! I know that guy! But I thought he was from Kentucky.

[strommsarnac]

Um, WHAT?!?!? Now, I know Ohio may be different than other places, but here, our gas station fuel tanks are below ground. I believe that the top of the tank must be below the frost line, where here is at 48 inches. Now, having spent 5 years spelunking, I know that at 48 inches below the surface the ground maintains a constant temp. That being about 50 degrees. Doesn't matter if it's 120 that day or ALL that week. 50 degrees. Oh, that's Fahrenheit.

Now, also have some brains about absorption of heat into a liquid, and knowing that my gas guzzling 94 ImpalaSS has a 24 gallon tank and that it takes about 4 minutes to completely fill...

Do they seriously think to convince me that in the 10 seconds it takes one gallon of gas to go from tank to tank, the OUTSIDE temp is going to dramatically expand the liquid fuel going through the pump?

Hell, when I filled my 3 gallon gas can for my lawn mower (to the fill line) at 50 degrees, later that day when it was 75 AND the container had sat outside in the sun, it was still at the line. By their logic, it should have dropped below the line.

I don't think expansion is as much as what they are trying to make us think.

[MillyMc]

isnt the summer (when its hottest, resulting in the most expanding of the pipes) also when they jack up the prices anyway? so we are getting double screwed?

the article also mentions how they can buy it temp-adjusted........so that would imply that they know the gauges are off, they dont get screwed by the weather, but they still screw the customers!? fuck em.