By Jon Haber
Special to the Daily Press

DOWNTOWN Consumer advocates are turning up the heat on the so-called “hot fuel” scam.

A federal judge’s ruling to allow a lawsuit against hot fuel practices to proceed may signal hard times for petroleum marketers, refineries and oil companies, said Judy Dugan, research director of the Santa Monica-based Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR) and its OilWatchDog project.

“Consumers are deceived when they cannot tell the value of the gasoline they’re getting,” Dugan said. “It’s not about breaking laws, it’s about the sale.”

The FTCR’s research director’s findings conclude that the science behind their argument against the practice is simple.

Gasoline is a light, volatile liquid, leading it to expand measurably with heat. When a liquid expands, it loses mass. In the case of gasoline, it loses energy as well.

The class action suit alleges that oil companies adjust the price of it’s product during its transaction with the retailer, but that retailers don’t follow the same practice when selling to consumers.

Oil distributors give extra fuel to the retailer to make up for the heat loss, but retailers sell the gasoline by a measured volume gallon, which is theoretically at the national standard of 60 degrees.

In warm-weather states, where temperature is commonly higher than 60 degrees, gasoline is prone to expand. This potentially affects the cost of fuel for consumers.

“So when you’re paying for gasoline that’s 90 degrees in temperature, you’ve lost two percent of mass and energy,” Dugan said. “So when gas prices get up to $4, that means you’re losing eight cents every gallon, and that’s $1.60 on a fill up. It gets expensive.”

Considering that the average temperature throughout the state is 74.6 degrees — nearly 15 degrees higher than the national average — Dugan said that “Californians are almost always losing money.”

American Petroleum Institute (API), however, said consumers are getting what they pay for because gasoline is stored in underground storage tanks, preserving the fuel’s temperature.

“It’s not 80 or 90 degrees in the underground storage tank,” said Al Mannato, fuels issues manager at API. “The gasoline is not sitting in an atmosphere at that [80 or 90 degree] temperature. It may be the fact the temperature of the gasoline is a little warmer than 60 degrees, but it’s not ambient temperature.”

Dugan said API’s response to the issue is “ludicrous.”

“A federal study by the National Institute for Standard and Technology found conclusively [the temperature of] gasoline in California in those [underground] tanks average almost 75 degrees on a year-round basis,” she said. “In hot weather of any kind, gasoline can also heat up in an above-ground tank or delivery truck.”

Dugan added that the underground tanks are double-walled to prevent leakage, which can often create a thermos effect and heat the gasoline inside the tank.

In addition, she said fuel in big urban markets, such as California, doesn’t get the time to cool in underground tanks because it is in constant use.

“Gasoline being sold at 90 degrees in not unheard of,” she said.

Some consumers believe that the practice should be stopped as soon as possible.

“I think they should abolish that [practice],” said Ron Serrano, a consumer at a gas station at the corner of Santa Monica and Lincoln boulevards. “They need to get rid of it. That’s cheating the customer.”

Others feel that the lawsuit against hot fuel might not change a thing.

“We’re all driving huge vehicles that consume way too much gas,” Kevin Stanley said while filling up his tank. “As consumers, we’re subject to whatever trends these companies put on us. People get cheated everyday in several issues.”

A solution for consumers already exists. In Canada, mainly because temperatures are commonly lower than 60 degrees, retailers benefit from using equipment that adjusts the volume of gasoline being pumped into consumers’ tanks. However, the technology has not been practiced in the United States to date.

Dugan added that the decision by District Court Judge Kathryn H. Vratil to let the proposed lawsuit go forward is just the first big hurdle facing consumers.

“That was a big step in a case like this, and God knows these cases can take a long time,” she said. “[Retailers] change their pumps over a six and eight year cycle, so all of the proposals are made knowing this process is going to take several years.”

In an attempt to fend of the lawsuit, ExxonMobil stations in California and Arizona have put stickers on its pumps informing consumers about fuel volume being “affected by temperature.”

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