Posted by Stephen Koff The verdict is still out on a definitive answer, although Rep. Dennis Kucinich insists that you're being had. But his office admits that it lacks all the facts to prove it in Ohio, while other facts suggest that Cleveland's snowy days and bleak winter skies may be to the state's benefit, gasoline-wise. What's weather got to do with gasoline ripoffs? Everything. Gasoline expands when temperatures rise above 60 degrees Fahrenheit. The energy molecules, however, don't follow along. That means your gallon of gas won't get you as far, so you'll have to use more fuel. The ripoff, according to Kucinich, is this: Oil companies and gas station owners can adjust their wholesale prices for gasoline expansion. They use formulas to take into account the fact that, for instance, a station can wind up with 10,000 gallons of gasoline - albeit weakened gasoline - if only 9,973 gallons are sent for delivery but it heats up to 90 degrees in the delivery truck. So to keep things fair between the station and oil company, they factor into the wholesale price the temperature on delivery. But they don't pass any savings on to you. On a hot summer day, says Kucinich, you're paying full price for gasoline that the station probably got at a discount. Even worse, the fuel won't even take you as far. This "hot fuel premium," he says, will cost Americans about $1.5 billion this summer. Ohioans will pay $31 million of that, he says. The only problem is, that calculation accounts for only four months of the year - months when temperatures are the highest, says the Ohio Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association. If the rest of the year were included, the calculation would have shown a $12 million benefit to Ohio drivers, the association said in a statement released Wednesday, coinciding with a hearing by Kucinich's domestic policy subcommittee in the U.S. House of Representatives. The savings come from the laws of physics, too. Gasoline contracts when it gets below 60 degrees, so by volume, it can have more energy content. The eight months that Kucinich's study excluded happen to be "the months that benefit consumers," the petroleum marketers said. Who's right? On a national average, Kucinich may be. The average national temperature of gasoline stored in an underground gas station tank is 64.7 degrees, and considerably higher in states such as Arizona and California, according to the Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology. The figures were collected over 22 months between 2002 and 2004 by a manufacturer of monitoring devices. How much that costs consumers is in dispute. Republicans on Kucinich's committee say it's "pennies" and pales compared with the extra costs drivers pay because of credit card fees the gas stations must pass along, and lost fuel efficiency due to ethanol blends. Executives from Shell and Exxon Mobil testified Wednesday and disputed practically every one of Kucinich's points but one: Gasoline expands when it's hot and contracts when it's cold. And in Ohio? It tends to be cold. The same figures Kucinich examined from the Department of Commerce, requested by The Plain Dealer, show that the average fuel temperature in Ohio is 58.9 degrees Fahrenheit. "That would suggest it's a wash," said Jim Truex, chief of weights and measures for the state of Ohio and a member of the National Conference on Weights and Measures. He says he'd like to see more information, including driving patterns throughout the year and the impact of regional gasoline blends. Truex and others on the national conference this month voted against recommending voluntary temperature-price meters at retail pumps, in part because they said consumers would probably be confused. Kucinich, however, says a metering system to factor in temperature with price would prompt some honesty. He notes that Canada uses a version of the meters. As for Ohio, Kucinich's aides acknowledge they lack specific knowledge of how and when the industry adjusts for temperature, such as hot months versus cold months, when contraction can benefit consumers but eat into industry profits. But, says spokeswoman Natalie Laber, "Who believes they would intentionally lose profits?" Kucinich, chairman of the subcommittee, plans more hearings this year. Several Democratic colleagues have joined him in demanding more information from the industry. Most of his Republican colleagues, though, think his time would be better served elsewhere. Citing reports that the E-85 blend of gasoline and ethanol could sap fuel economy by up to 35 percent, Rep. Brian Bilbray, a California Republican, said, "I'm sure that when the chairman joins with us in eliminating the ripoff of consumers by the federal mandate to burn alcohol in our gasoline, we'll have more than enough savings to be able to investigate all kinds of devices."
on July 28, 2007, 6:13 pm
24.165.165.73
Good news for Ohio drivers: Big Oil may not be ripping you off.
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