Dennis Kucinich Charging Windmills Again

To describe Kucinich as Quixotic is an understatement.

If he charges at any more windmills, the USA will be a windmill free zone.

Let's be clear. A 50 degree F delta creates only a 3% difference, and since gas is almost always in underground tanks, you won't see more than a 10 degree delta, or a 0.6% delta, the equivalent of less than $0.02/gallon.

It's a non issue.

Expanding gasoline a heated issue - Los Angeles Times

U.S. lawmakers press for service stations to install devices to give customers what they pay for in the summer.
By Elizabeth Douglass, Times Staff Writer
June 9, 2007

Federal lawmakers took aim at oil companies and service station owners Friday, accusing them of cheating customers by ignoring fuel's tendency to expand with higher temperatures. U.S. motorists could pay an extra $1.5 billion this summer because of it, they said.

"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.

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