For Immediate Release

Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association

1 NW OOIDA Drive, Grain Valley, MO
Contact: Norita Taylor
E-mail: norita_taylor@ooida.com
Web site: www.ooida.com

Phone: (816) 229-5791 Fax: (816) 427-4468

Learn more about "Hot Fuel" and do something about it here.

OOIDA's "Hot Fuel" debate gains momentum

Sept. 11, 2006, Grain Valley, MO - A campaign by the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) to raise awareness of the economic impact on consumers from "hot fuel" being dispensed by fuel stops has gained momentum with coverage of the topic in newspapers throughout the country.

On Aug. 27, The Kansas City Star Sunday edition published a front-page investigative article on the hot fuel topic, citing OOIDA as a major source. The article was picked up and run by an additional 12 newspapers across the country. Three subsequent editions of The Star that week carried follow-up articles on the hot fuel debate.

"Hot fuel" refers to the expansion of diesel fuel or gasoline when it is delivered, stored and dispensed at temperatures higher than the government standard of 60 degrees. That is the temperature/volume used in the petro-chemical industry to measure all petroleum liquids. At the 60-degree standard, a gallon of fuel delivers a certain amount of energy, or Btu. But expanded by higher temperatures, that same amount of fuel delivers less energy. The warmer the fuel, the less Btu and fewer miles to the gallons a vehicle will get. Consequently, if a vehicle averages 6 miles per gallon, 200 gallons of 98-degree fuel is going to carry you 36 fewer miles than 60-degree fuel.

The Kansas City Star article, "It's hot fuel for you, cold cash for Big Oil," was written by award-winning Kansas City Star reporter, Steve Everly, who became interested after receiving an OOIDA press release on the topic in March 2005.

Since January 2005, OOIDA has been challenging the departments of weights and measures in all 50 states to require fuel temperature compensation at retail gasoline and diesel pumps. The National Conference of Weights and Measures declined to take action and so OOIDA began its own media campaign to bring attention of the problem to its professional trucker members, the general public and consumer advocacy groups.

The Kansas City Star article exposed the inequities at the pump that the American public is absorbing in purchasing fuel that is not temperature-compensated and the lack of acknowledgment or action by both the oil industry and the state weights and measures regulators to correct the problem. In the article, Everly estimated that hot fuel is costing American consumers about $2.3 billion each year - much of that coming out of truckers' pockets.

The articles have also created interest around the country among interested consumer groups and political figures. The California attorney general responded to the articles by calling for an investigation of gas stations and truck stops selling hot fuel without compensating for volume changes due to temperature. Likewise, North Carolina's Attorney General's Office said, based on the concerns pointed out by the series in The Star , they were reviewing the articles and taking a look at the issues they bring up.

John Siebert, project manager of the OOIDA Foundation has been researching the effects of hot fuel since 2002. He was impressed with the way Steve Everly researched and developed the 'Hot Fuel' articles.

"The stories and their subsequent impact have soared to heights I had barely hoped to imagine," Siebert said. " While so many citizens look to governmental agencies for social justice, the true champion of social justice is our nation's free press."

Contact: Norita Taylor, Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association at (816) 229-5791 Ext. 1622.

Founded in 1973, the Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) is composed of more than 143,000 owner-operators, professional drivers, and small business truckers from all 50 states, and Canada. OOIDA represents the interests of this nation's more than 350,000 small-business trucking professionals in the legislative and regulatory processes at both federal and state levels.