Hot fuel update: Weights and Measures waits; judge allows class-action lawsuit to proceed

While the National Conference on Weights and Measures (NCWM) decided in January not to schedule an official vote on retail temperature compensation in 2008, a possible class-action lawsuit against U.S. oil companies for not adjusting gasoline for temperature is being allowed to proceed.

U.S. District Judge Kathryn Vratil, hearing dozens of lawsuits from across the country consolidated in her court in Kansas City, Kan., on Feb. 21 rejected a motion by the oil companies to dismiss the lawsuit, The Kansas City Star reported.

In the ruling, the judge noted that the plaintiffs allege that “with regard to the advertisement, marketing and sale of hot motor fuel,” marketers and operators have engaged in “deceptive, fraudulent and misleading acts.”

The oil companies sought to dismiss the class-action lawsuit because, among other things, “state regulation requires defendants to dispense motor fuel in uniform gallons of exactly 231 cubic inches,” the judge noted.

“Defendants have not shown as a matter of law that state regulation in any of the 28 jurisdictions precludes plaintiffs’ claims,” the judge wrote. The 28 jurisdictions include 26 states, Guam and the District of Columbia.

The judge’s complete ruling can be seen via a link at the following Web site: consumerwatchdog.org.

The Conference on Weights and Measures decided at a meeting Jan. 29 in Albuquerque, N.M., not to schedule an official vote on retail temperature compensation this year. The next possible official vote will be in July 2009.

NCWM will use 2008 as an "informational" year, seeking more testimony and research, according to a report by the National Association of Truck Stop Operators (NATSO). Representatives of NATSO attended the NCWM session on temperature compensation.

NATSO and other associations announced in March 2007 the formation of Partnership for Uniform Marketing Practices (P.U.M.P.). The organization said then that its focus is “to ensure fair competition, cost-effective distribution and equitable treatment of consumers in addressing the issue of temperature variation in the sale of gasoline and diesel fuel.”

In announcing the formation of P.U.M.P., Lisa Mullings, president and CEO of NATSO, said, “retailers have banded together to fight allegations that consumers are receiving less than they pay for as the result of retailers selling gasoline at temperatures higher than standard 60-degree reference temperature.”

The Kansas City Star put the spotlight on temperature compensation when it published articles in August 2006 reporting that “at recent prices U.S. consumers are spending about $2.3 billion more for gasoline and diesel this year than they otherwise would if fuel pumps were adjusted to account for expansion of hot fuel.”

Fuel is frequently sold at temperatures hotter than the government standard of 60 degrees, The Star reported in its series, noting that the standard was agreed to “nearly a century ago” by the industry and regulators.