Oil Companies Are Using a Simple Trick to Bilk Consumers out of Billions

[marmar]

from Media Consortium, via AlterNet:


Oil Companies Are Using a Simple Trick to Bilk Consumers out of Billions

By Brian Beutler, Media Consortium. Posted August 14, 2007.



Oil companies know that gasoline expands at higher temperatures and has less volume at lower ones, but they've refused to upgrade gas stations with a simple tool that would adjust the price of gas according to its temperature.

It's probably intuitive to most people that the gasoline in their fuel tank expands in the heat -- just like doorframes and cookware and everything else on the planet. What's probably less intuitive is that, in the United States, this physical phenomenon pumps a nearly $2 billion annual windfall out of consumers' pockets and into oil company coffers, according to numerous calculations, including a recent House of Representatives study.

The North Carolina-based company Gilbarco Veeder-Root manufactures a device -- a temperature-sensitive chamber for fuel -- that, if affixed to gasoline pumps across the country, would return that money to consumers and help relieve some of our storied gas-price pressures. The device -- and others like it -- is simple, functional and, in fact, already in widespread use at gas stations all across Canada. Last month, Democratic presidential hopeful and Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich, chair of the Domestic Policy Subcommittee, held the second in a series of hearings to investigate why the technology has never made it into the American market.

Temperature is just one of the many variables that determine how much energy one tank of gasoline contains, and therefore how many miles it will pull your car. But the effects of temperature change are easier to calculate than, say, ethanol content or petroleum grade -- and are therefore also easy to correct for. Here's how it works.

A gallon of gasoline contains a certain number of molecules, which combust in your car's engine to provide it with energy. If you heat up that gallon of gasoline it will expand, leaving you with a larger volume of gas than the gallon with which you started. But your new volume will contain the same number of combustible molecules and therefore will provide the same amount of energy as it did prior to the heating. That means a tank full of "hot" gas will provide a car with less energy than will the same tank full of "cool" gas, which is why you've probably been advised (correctly) not to buy gasoline when it's hot outside. Simple, right? ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/story/59593/

[madrchsod]

1. npr had a report on this last week...

interesting the canadians are already using the device...

[tuvor]

2. We've been doing it for as long as I can recall, apparently.

By far the most meaningful difference in the way gasoline is sold in Canada relates to the concept of "Volume Corrected to 15º C". The volume of gasoline, propane or diesel fuel, like that of any other liquid, varies according to its temperature. A brochure published by Industry Canada's Weights and Measures Division entitled "Volume Corrected to 15º C" states, in part "..the technology that works as follows: A temperature sensor continuously measures the temperature as the fuel is being metered. It transmits the readings to an electronic register, which automatically selects the right correction factor and applies it to the amount of fuel to calculate the volume at 15º C. So, when you see the words "Volume Corrected to 15º C", you know that the volume of energy your fuel dollar buys is not influenced by the temperature of the fuel."

(FWIW, I've been seeing labels on our pumps with those words for many years.)

There's also some concern about the way this method is implemented in Canada:

Volume correction of retail sales of gasoline to 15º C in Canada is not without controversy: Getting Hosed. Because the yearly mean temperature in Canada is only 6º C (43º F), gasoline is likely be purchased at temperatures below 15º C and would therefore be priced to take into account the higher energy content. Some Canadian motorists have complained that the oil industry was involved in establishing volume correction of retail sales since dealers felt they were selling fewer gallons of gasoline than they were paying for. Basing the cost of a liter of gasoline on energy content standardizes its value for all concerned.

http://www.users.qwest.net/~taaaz/AZgas.html#HOW%20GASOLINE%20IS%20SOLD%20IN%20CANADA

[uberllama42]

3. What is the thermal expansion coefficient of gasoline?

Is it really worth it to bother figuring out how much extra we are paying due to thermal expansion? I would guess that the extra volume is negligible, but without professional chemical analysis, I don't know.

[fed-up]

4. k/r thanks DK for working to stop the thieves nt

[many a good man]

5. Does it even out in the winter time when temps are colder?

If so, no big deal.

[FogerRox]

6. Only over the last 90 years..........

I dont recall the argument being before, like back in '73.