News Release
For Immediate Release
October 17, 2012
Contact: Aaron Zappia
215-657-7700
 

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Greenleaf's Octane Testing Bill Passes Legislature

Today, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives concurred in Senate amendments sending Senator Greenleaf's legislation authorizing random testing of octane levels in gasoline to the Governor for approval.

Pennsylvania is one of only three states that do not conduct testing of octane levels. The Department of Agriculture is required to annually inspect gas pumps for accuracy, but testing for levels of octane is not required.

In January 2007, the Pennsylvania Auditor General recommended that the state begin testing octane levels following an audit on retail gas pumps across the state.

Senator Greenleaf said, "Consumers should have some state government assurance that they are getting what they pay for at the gas pump. With the economy underperforming and prices of food and gas rising, people need to be certain they are not getting short changed.  There is ample evidence to justify this legislation.  Cars can be damaged due to inaccurate octane levels."

A U.S. Government Accountability Office report of April 1990, found that random gas pump sampling revealed octane mislabeling in 22 to 53% of pumps tested.  In 1990 the Pennsylvania Association of Weights and Measures performed a random testing of octane levels throughout the state and found a failure rate of 17%.  More recently, a sweep in New Jersey in 2008 by the State Attorney General resulted in more than 350 violations, including 26 for inaccurate octane ratings.  New Jersey has a testing program in place to protect consumers.  Also, in December 2011 officials in NJ discovered out of 325 gas stations inspected, 14 were cited for false octane levels.

The 2007 Pennsylvania Auditor General's report found that no pumps had been checked for octane since 1999.  At that time, there had been at least five reported cases of tainted gasoline in eastern Pennsylvania in the past five months.  According to the report, in 2007 there were two reported incidents of tainted gas in Montgomery County in April; two in Monroe County, in February and May; and one in Northampton County in January.

The Pennsylvania AAA Federation supports legislation.