Study: ?Hot fuel? possibly shorting Calif. drivers millions

Study: ôHot fuelö possibly shorting Calif. drivers millions A California Energy Commission study has found that state consumers are being overcharged for fuel by more than $600 million a year, due to higher state temperatures.
   The study found that gasoline in California was being sold at an average year-round temperature of 72 degrees. Gasoline expands as it warms, about 1 percent for every 15 degree increase, and because of a nearly century-old petroleum industry standard, pumps throughout the nation are set to a 60 degree point of sale standard.
   This means that Californians receive about 1 percent less gas than they pay for, according to the study.
   While this may represent less than 4 cents per gallon, Californians purchased 15.7 billion gallons of gasoline last year according to the State Board of Equalization. Based on $4 a gallon fuel, Californians could be getting shorted out of $626 million a year due to the 'hot fuel' situation. Nationwide, the issue costs consumers up to $3 billion, according to the Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association, which represents truck drivers around the nation.
   This week, the National Conference on Weights and Measures is meeting to consider doing something about the 'hot fuel' problem. One option they may consider is requiring all gasoline pumps to measure the ambient temperature and automatically adjust the price per gallon accordingly. Canada already enforces such a regulation and 95 percent of the pumps in Canada are fitted with the automatic devices.
   The petroleum industry, however, believes that the automatic devices are not required and that prices balance out over a yearly period for most drivers. In addition, the industry claims that the devices are expensive and will likely raise the price of fuel further.