How oil companies are taking advantage of basic thermal science to squeeze

[babsbunny]

billions of dollars a year out of consumers' pockets.

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=big_oils_particular_profits

Big Oil's Particular Profits

How oil companies are taking advantage of basic thermal science to squeeze billions of dollars a year out of consumers' pockets.

Brian Beutler | August 22, 2007 | web only



It's probably intuitive to most people that the gasoline in their fuel tank expands in the heat -- just like doorframes and cookware and everything else on the planet. What's probably less intuitive is that, in the United States, this physical phenomenon pumps a nearly $2 billion annual windfall out of consumers' pockets and into oil company coffers, according to numerous calculations, including a recent House of Representatives study.
The North Carolina-based company Gilbarco Veeder-Root manufactures a device -- a temperature-sensitive chamber for fuel -- that, if affixed to gasoline pumps across the country, would return that money to consumers and help relieve some of our storied gas-price pressures. The device -- and others like it -- is simple, functional and, in fact, already in widespread use at gas stations all across Canada. Last month, Democratic presidential hopeful and Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich, chair of the Domestic Policy Subcommittee, held the second in a series of hearings to investigate why the technology has never made it into the American market.