GASOLINE PUMP LABEL FOR ALCOHOL BLENDS AT ISSUE

The U.S. ethanol industry plans to press Congress next year to adopt a nationwide gasoline pump label that will not discriminate against alcohol blended fuels. Currently, most retail gasoline pumps have at least three labels. The Federal Trade Commission requires octane labeling, the Environmental Protection Agency requires labeling for lead and is considering additional labeling requirements, and 45 states have a third label that includes alcohol content. J.B. Smith, president of Ethanol Corporation, is urging a uniform federal gasoline contents label and an investigation of antiethanol advertising. The American Automobile Association believes existing labels on gasoline pumps dealing with lead content, alcohol content, and octane are essentially meaningless and possibly confusing and will continue to be so until there is a federal standard for labeling and cooperative state-federal efforts to enforce it. The American Petroleum Institute position is that there is a limit to consumers' capacity to absorb more labeling information, and companies should not be required to label volumes of individual gasoline components by percentage, especially since chemical constituents vary widely and are not as important as octane rating. A General Accounting Office survey of all 50 states shows the following: 39 states require a label showing gasoline ingredients, and all 39 were motivated by concerns about the disclosure of alcohol; 24 state agencies think a federal uniform label is needed, 13 are opposed, and 13 are undecided.

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  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/00301388
• Corporate Authors:

  PennWell Publishing Company

  1421 South Sheridan, P.O. Box 1260
  Tulsa, OK  United States  74101
• Publication Date: 1988-10-17

Media Info

• Pagination: p. 88
• Serial:
  • Oil and Gas Journal
  • Volume: 86
  • Issue Number: 42
  • Publisher: PennWell Publishing Company
  • ISSN: 0030-1388

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Consumers; Ethanol; Gasoline; Information management; Information, data, and knowledge; Labeling; Methanol
• Uncontrolled Terms: Content
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Society; I10: Economics and Administration;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00476915
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Oct 31 1988 12:00AM