WASHINGTON The two largest associations in the trucking industry have ended up on opposite sides of the "hot fuel" issue.

The American Trucking Associations is part of a group fighting against the use of automatic temperature compensation equipment at retail fuel stations, while the Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association is pushing for the devices.

ATA and the Partnership for Uniform Marketing Practices, or PUMP, which includes fuel retailers and suppliers, have requested that California prohibit the use of automatic temperature compensation equipment at the pump.

The coalition says that because the state has no regulations regarding the use of the devices, which are intended to compensate for volume changes of fuel at various temperatures, it could be abused by retailers. Such abuse could occur when an unscrupulous fuel station only turned on the temperature compensation equipment when it was advantageous to the retailer and confuse customers.

On the other side of the issue is the Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association, which for the past three years has been challenging the departments of weights and measures in all 50 states to require fuel temperature compensation devices on retail gasoline and diesel pumps.

The National Conference of Weights and Measures declined to take action on the issue, so OOIDA began its own media campaign to bring the problem to the attention of its professional trucker members, the general public and consumer advocacy groups.

For the uninitiated, "hot fuel" refers to the expansion of diesel fuel and 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 petrochemical 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 gallon a vehicle will get. Consequently, if a vehicle averages 6 miles per gallon, 200 gallons of 98-degree fuel is going to take you 36 fewer miles than 60-degree fuel.

Last year, the National Conference on Weights and Measures rejected a measure allowing states to require that retailers adjust fuel transactions according to temperature. Meanwhile, California's Energy Commission is doing a cost-benefit analysis on implementing automatic temperature control devices at retail fuel stations.

One of the members of the PUMP collation is the truckstop/travel center group NATSO, which contends that automatic temperature compensation devices would make it impossible for motorists to "compare apples to apples when using outside signs to determine where to buy fuel."

ATA and other PUMP members are against temperature compensation devices at the pump, saying that any impact of temperature variances is eliminated through competitive pricing. They also argue there has been no third-party study on the economic effects of temperature compensation. The Government Accountability Office is studying the issue.

OOIDA has a Website devoted to the issue, www.turndownhotfuel.com, NATSO has a section of its Website devoted to the temperature compensation issue at www.natso.com.