Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff Lauren Vogebaum here. Unfortunately for American drivers, gas
Speaker 1: prices often go up during the summer, starting around Memorial Day.
Speaker 1: There are many reasons behind the increase in summer fuel prices,
Speaker 1: and some are fairly logical. More people traveling, especially on
Speaker 1: family vacations and road trips, increases demand. Also, in the
Speaker 1: spring months, energy companies conduct maintenance on their refineries, shutting
Speaker 1: them down and limiting capacity until late May, decreasing supply,
Speaker 1: and because of these disruptions, oil supplies can become stretched.
Speaker 1: In addition, natural disasters like hurricanes can increase prices by
Speaker 1: disrupting transport routes and damaging refineries and other infrastructure. But
Speaker 1: did you know that the gasoline sold during the summer
Speaker 1: is actually different and more expensive to produce than that
Speaker 1: sold in the winter. Twice every year in the United States,
Speaker 1: the fuel supply changes. It's known as the seasonal gasoline transition.
Speaker 1: This change is the biggest reason for the price hike
Speaker 1: in summer gasoline. Depending on the time of year, gas
Speaker 1: stations switch between providing summer grade fuel and winter grade fuel.
Speaker 1: This which started in nine as part of the Reformulated
Speaker 1: Gasoline Program, which was established through the nineteen ninety Clean
Speaker 1: Air Act amendments. The Environmental Protection Agency or EPA, started
Speaker 1: the Reformulated Gasoline Program in order to reduce pollution and
Speaker 1: smog during the summer ozone season, which occurs from June
Speaker 1: first to September fift In order to reduce pollution, summer
Speaker 1: blend fuels use different oxygenates or fuel additives. These blends,
Speaker 1: the e p A says, burn cleaner and also help
Speaker 1: compensate for a limited oil supply. This practice of using
Speaker 1: seasonal blends also encourages the development of alternative fuels. Remember
Speaker 1: that gasoline isn't just made up of processed crude oil.
Speaker 1: It's a blend of refined crude oil and different compounds
Speaker 1: and additives. The actual difference in cost of production varies,
Speaker 1: and it can add between five and fifteen cents per
Speaker 1: gallon to the cost of your fill up, depending on
Speaker 1: where you live in the United States. No matter the
Speaker 1: difference in production costs, the increase at the pump is
Speaker 1: even greater owing to the summer driving season dips and
Speaker 1: supply maintenance costs, and companies converting to production of summer blends.
Speaker 1: The summer grade fuel burns cleaner than winter grade fuel.
Speaker 1: This means that it produces less small and releases fewer
Speaker 1: toxic air pollutants. During the summer, pollution is a frequent
Speaker 1: concern due to increased levels of smog and ozone, which
Speaker 1: can harm the lungs. The summer heat boosts the formation
Speaker 1: of ozone, while the appearance of an inversion layer, which
Speaker 1: is an im mobile layer of air, can trap pollutants
Speaker 1: in the lower atmosphere. Summer grade fuel has a different
Speaker 1: read vapor pressure, or r VP than winter grade fuel,
Speaker 1: which contributes to its being marginally more eco friendly. R
Speaker 1: VP is the vapor pressure of gasoline measured at a
Speaker 1: hundred degrees fahrenheit that's thirty eight celsius. The fuels with
Speaker 1: higher r VP evaporate more easily than those with lower
Speaker 1: r VP. A particular fuel blends r VP is based
Speaker 1: on the combined r VP of the ingredients that make
Speaker 1: up the blend. Irregulators worry about this evaporation because it
Speaker 1: contributes to ozone formation. The gasoline must have an r
Speaker 1: VP below fourteen point seven pounds per square inch or
Speaker 1: p s I, which is normal atmospheric pressure. If a
Speaker 1: fuel's r VP were greater than that, excess pressure would
Speaker 1: build up in the gas tank and the fuel could
Speaker 1: boil and evaporate. Depending on where you are in the US,
Speaker 1: the e p A standards mandate and r VP below
Speaker 1: either nine point zero or seven point eight p s
Speaker 1: I four summer grade fuel. Some low regulations call for
Speaker 1: stricter standards, and because of these varying r VP standards,
Speaker 1: more than fourteen different types of fuel blends are sold
Speaker 1: throughout the US during the summer. Because r VP standards
Speaker 1: are higher during the winter, winter grade fuel uses more
Speaker 1: buttane as an additive. With its high r VP of
Speaker 1: fifty two p s i. A winter grade gas has
Speaker 1: about ten percent butane in its blend. Butane is inexpensive
Speaker 1: and plentiful, contributing to lower prices. Summer grade fuel might
Speaker 1: still use butane, but in lower quantities around two percent
Speaker 1: of a blend. So when do companies start producing these
Speaker 1: different summer fuels. The e p A defines April to
Speaker 1: June as the transition season for fuel production. Refineries switch
Speaker 1: over to summer blend production in March and April, and
Speaker 1: gas stations have by June one to switch to selling
Speaker 1: summer grade gas, while terminals and other facilities upstream from
Speaker 1: pumping stations have to switch by May one. Following summer
Speaker 1: driving season, companies switch back to winter blends beginning in September,
Speaker 1: with the first winter increase in r VP allowance occurring
Speaker 1: on September. In a two tho one report, the e
Speaker 1: p A said that quote roughly seventy five million Americans
Speaker 1: breathe cleaner air today due to the seasonal fuel program. Still,
Speaker 1: the increased price, combined with the use of controversial additives
Speaker 1: like ethanol, which is less energy efficient than gasoline and
Speaker 1: produces more small, means that the program may still have
Speaker 1: its detractors. In times of crisis or natural disasters, the
Speaker 1: e p A may waive the summer fuel mandates. Two
Speaker 1: recent examples were the ransomware attack that caused the Colonial Pipeline,
Speaker 1: which supplies gas to states all along the East Coast,
Speaker 1: to shut down, and the COVID nineteen pandemic. In In
Speaker 1: the former case, the waiver was to keep fuel prices
Speaker 1: from getting too high, and in the ladder, the drop
Speaker 1: off in gasoline demand meant that more time was needed
Speaker 1: to transition from winter to summer fuel. As gas storage
Speaker 1: is limited. Today's episode is based on the article why
Speaker 1: is gas more expensive in the summer than in the
Speaker 1: winter on house to works dot com written by Jacob Silverman.
Speaker 1: Brain Stuff is production of Our Heart Radio in partnership
Speaker 1: with house toffworks dot Com and it's produced by Tyler Klang.
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