New York (Platts)--13Jul2007

The US oil industry won a temporary victory this week when the National
Conference on Weights and Measures failed to approve a proposal on
"temperature compensation" in the sale of retail motor fuels.

     A proposal before the NCWM at its annual meeting backing automatic
temperature compensation of fuels failed to receive the required 27 votes of
state and county experts for passage, NCWM said in a statement Thursday. 

     It said the proposal did gain the support of 23 states, but that while
many of the remaining 16 states in the group "voiced support" for the
proposal, they felt that "further development of the issue was needed for a
successful implementation." 

     NCWM represents the entire US in the development of standards for weights
and measures.

     While the vote this week was a defeat for consumer groups that have been
pushing for a gauge adjustment at retail gasoline pumps, new NCWM chair Judy
Cardin said in the statement that "automatic temperature compensation is our
top priority this year." 

     The group said that a steering committee "made up of national experts is
already at work moving this issue forward." 

     Consumer groups claim that in hot weather consumers get less fuel for
their dollars. Last year, a consumer group in California called on state and
federal regulators to require temperature sensitive gasoline pump technology
to account for volume changes at higher temperatures.

     The group, Foundation for Taxpayer & Consumer Rights, cited a Kansas City
Star investigative story which said that pumps do not account for the bigger
volumes of gasoline at temperatures above 60 degrees Fahrenheit, meaning that
consumers receive less gasoline than they should.

     The group noted that technology to adjust for temperatures has already
been installed in Canada to account for colder temperatures, but that domestic
oil companies have resisted because they made "an extra $500 million in
profits last year in California due to failure to adjust for [higher] gasoline
temperatures."  

		--Robert DiNardo, robert_dinardo@platts.com