Expanding gasoline a heated issue

"It is a little-known industry secret that the amount of gasoline you put in your tank when you fill up in the summer is less than the amount in the winter, in terms of weight and energy content," said Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio), who conducted a congressional hearing on the issue Friday.

"People are paying for gasoline they're not getting."

The "hot fuel" price penalty is legal -- and not in dispute. But consumer groups, truckers and others say the cost to drivers is soaring along with gasoline and diesel prices. They want gas stations to install devices that would end the inequity by automatically adjusting volume according to the temperature at the pump.

"You're not getting a real gallon when it's hot," said John Telles, a Pinole, Calif., trucker who joined one of several lawsuits filed last year against fuel retailers over the practice.

"I figure every time I fill up my truck, it's costing me probably anywhere from $5 to $10, and every time I fill the car, it costs me a buck or two. I lose money on it," Telles said in an interview.

The cost of the problem is most evident in California, where the weather is consistently warm and motorists pay among the nation's highest prices for fuel. During the summer, fuel expansion could cause motorists here to overpay for gasoline by $228 million, according to a new report by the House subcommittee on domestic policy, which held Friday's hearing.

Now it's become a hot-button issue among lawmakers too.

Friday's hearing was a first for the hot-fuel dispute and was a sign that politicians viewed the controversy as a consumer issue that could create traction with voters. Kucinich, who is running for president, is chairman of the subcommittee.

This month California Assemblyman Mike Davis (D-Los Angeles) weighed in with a bill that called for the state to analyze the issue and possible solutions by the end of next year. Lawmakers in other states also have proposed legislative fixes.

Industry groups don't take issue with the physics of fuel expansion. But they reject the notion that consumers are losing out, contending that summertime losses from expansion are offset by gains in the winter. They also have warned that requiring new devices would increase the price of fuel and put some struggling gas stations out of business.