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Home > Blogs > Butler County News and Issues > Archives > 2008 > July > 22 > Entry
Quantity, yes. Quality, no.
A rare bit of good news related to gas prices led our newspaper Tuesday.
The article, in short, analyzes gas pump inspections recently completed by Butler County Auditor Roger Reynolds. It found that (quantity-wise) local drivers are more likely to be undercharged than overcharged for gas at their local gas station — at least by a few drops.
But while the quantity tests reflected well on local vendors — though some pumps failed, no one was found to be intentionally ripping people off — Reynolds stresses that his office does not test quality.
Some have pushed for years for local government to test the octane levels in gasoline to ensure they are as advertised. Here’s the latest I’ve heard on the issue, as reported June 29 in a state budget story in the Cleveland Plain Dealer:
Until March 2007, Ohio was one of four states whose laws didn’t authorize official testing for gasoline quality, such as posted vs. actual octane. (County auditors already check to see whether gas pumps accurately meter gallons.) Then the General Assembly allowed the Ohio Department of Agriculture to test gas, but legislators didn’t fund it; the estimated annual tab is $500,000 (4 cents per Ohioan per year.)
What about a test-funding amendment Agriculture shopped to legislators writing the construction budget Strickland signed Tuesday? Terry P. Fleming, Ohio lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute, got House and Senate budget-writers to cold-shoulder the amendment. He said the oil lobby isn’t against testing - but opposes a $4 to $6 per-gas-pump annual fee Agriculture planned on.
Strickland’s aides say he’s moving heaven and earth to find the $500,000 somewhere else - even as he approved a budget giving Canton’s Pro Football Hall of Fame $500,000.
Reynolds said his office is considering a program to allow vendors to voluntarily have the quality of their gas tested. But it’s too early to say how that would work.
What do you think? How could we be sure gas quality is as-advertised?
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