WEIGHTS AND MEASURES ADOPTS DIESEL GALLON EQUIVALENTS FOR CNG

NACS-backed amendment is adopted at the National Conference on Weights and Measures Annual

Meeting.

Last week, the National Conference on Weights and Measures (NCWM) held its annual meeting in

Denver. During the meeting, the conference adopted a proposal supported by NACS that would

allow fuel retailers to advertise and sell Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) in diesel gallon equivalents

(DGEs)—defined as 6.384 pounds or 2.894 kilograms of CNG.

NACS has long worked with the Weights and Measures community to adopt such a change,

advocating for the amendment before numerous regional and national Weights and Measures

conferences.

Many retailers who sell or are thinking about selling CNG as a vehicle fuel want to be able to post the

prices for consumers in a manner that consumers can understand and allows them to make a

comparison with other fuel options, such as gasoline or diesel fuels. The amendment adopted by the

NCWM will allow just that.

Last year, Congress passed legislation that would align the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) definition

of gasoline gallon equivalent (GGE) to match the NCWM definition. However, this legislation did not

address the issue of DGEs. Due to the divergence of the two definitions of DGE (that of the IRS

versus the NCWM), NACS advocated for a NCWM solution to remedy any potential litigation risks,

similar to those faced by retailers in automatic temperature compensation suits.

During its annual meeting, the NCWM also adopted an amendment that extends the so-called “one-

pound waiver” for E10 for one year, through May 1, 2017. In addition, the NCWM rejected a

proposal that would have changed the diesel dispenser filter regulation from a required 30-micron

filter to a 10-micron filter. Many fuel retailing businesses are concerned that changing to the more

expensive 10-micron filter will not significantly reduce the clogging problems to warrant the added

cost of a new filter requirement. Also, using a 10-micron filter will slow the flow rate to such an

extent that it will take longer for customers to fill up their vehicles with diesel fuel. Those supporting

moving to a 10-micron filter believe that this will significantly improve the overall quality of diesel

fuel and should be part of a retailer’s overall maintenance plan.

NGS INDIA