The “Turn Down Hot Fuel” campaign has just launched a new website to educate consumers on how “hot fuel” may have them paying higher prices than necessary for fuel.

The campaign is spearheaded by a professional truckers’ organization, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA), and includes a Web site, http://www.turndownhotfuel.com/.

The phrase “hot fuel” refers to expanded diesel fuel or gasoline that is sold at retail pumps at temperatures higher than the century-old government standard of 60 degrees. That is the temperature/volume used in the petro-chemical industry to measure all petroleum liquids at the refinery and every point after the refinery, except at the retail pump.

“Temperatures of the fuel in underground storage tanks do not change dramatically enough during a 24-hour cycle,” said OOIDA Project Leader, John Siebert..

Congress has stepped in to address the issue. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-OH called the first-ever congressional hearing on hot fuel June 8, 2007 where his staff unveiled a study saying hot fuel would cost consumers $1.5 billion this summer alone. He called a second hearing for July 25 specifically to get representatives from major oil companies to testify about retail fuel practices.