Have you purchased a portable fuel tank for your
garage or boat in recent years and wondered why they are, respectively, such pieces
of garbage or so expensive?
You can’t help but be frustrated with what has
happened to the once-simple gas can.
The modern no-spill units you use to fuel up your mower,
chainsaw or ATV are anything but no-spill, as the clumsy spouts and necks lead
to immeasurable amounts of wasted gas ending up on your power equipment and
garage floor. You likely approach the same gas cans with trepidation because
they look like bloated little powder kegs ready to explode on hot summer days
because they are no longer manufactured with vents.
Then there’s those portable tanks that come in a
variety of sizes for your fishing boat. They could be purchased for under $30 prior
to 2011. Now, they come in at $50 to $80.
The mark-ups don’t end there. Consider what became
of the fuel tanks that you don’t make direct purchases of, such as those built into
your equipment. The newer tanks and accompanying hoses and accessories have add
$50 to the cost of push mowers and $100 to riding mowers over the past decade. Those
same changes added $280 to the cost of an outboard engine and $360 to jet skis.
Don’t blame manufacturers for this.
Blame the government.
It all started with the California Air Resource
Board and their purported efforts to save the environment which in the case of
CARB is always done with truly-ridiculous regulations that micromanage the minutia
of consumerism.
CARB somehow got it in their heads that fuel tanks and power equipment not only contribute to global warming when they’re open or running, but also when they are not. They believe that plastic tanks and hoses breathe incredible amounts of gas fumes to the air on a non-stop basis.
Cans might pass gas through a vented cap or a loose-fitting
nozzle, so that’s what forced CARB to call for non-vented tanks that use
self-closing spouts that require you to clumsily flick a lever to open them. Never
mind that all those fumes still escape every time you open your gas can to fill
it or put the spout back into the tank for safe transportation and storage.
That rule was bad enough. Then CARB analyzed the
gas molecules that might gradually work their way through the walls of the
tanks or the bodies of the hose. CARB became adamant that those ultra-microscopic
particles are killing the atmosphere so they required tanks be made with molded-in
barriers or special materials to prevent permeation that was already negligible
to begin with.
Sadly, the Environmental Protection Agency ate this up and decided to introduce similar standards at the federal level for gas cans, mowers and watercraft beginning in 2011 which accounts for the ridiculous and pricy changes you’ve encountered.
At my factory, we’ve lost business in a few waves
because we didn’t have the technology necessary to meet these crazy regulations.
In 2010, we made the last of our portable fuel
tanks for marine use. The production of those tanks kept 8 people busy for
three-quarters of the year.
That same year, fuel tank business for lawn mower
manufacturers also tanked for us. We were making more than 60,000 mower tanks a
year. Once the law went into effect, our customers’ tanks could be used only
for aftermarket repairs of old mowers and production dropped to only 2% of what
it was.
This week officially marks the end of an era for us
at Confer Plastics as we will be making the very last of those aftermarket
items. We had been making gas tanks since the early-1970s. Going forward, we’ll
never make one again.
We could have stayed in the gas can business, but
it would have required a $4 million investment in a high-tech multi-layered
machine necessary to make them. There are far better ways to invest such money
and we certainly couldn’t have made such a purchase when those laws went into
effect: We were in the throes of the recession, a truly scary time to do
business.
Sometimes, with laws like these, you just need to sit back and ponder how oppressive – and stupid – governments can be.
Leave it to them to ruin the simple, basic red gas
can.
Think about that the next time you spill gasoline
all over your shoes and hands.
From the 17 July 2017 Greater Niagara Newspapers
3 comments:
Well written and spot-on. I have a few old cans and one new can of the "no-vent, ready to explode, and certain to waste a minimum of 15% content through spillage" design. I stopped using it after I realized that my issues were not user error, just a crazy design- you have to perform 3 different steps in order to allow the gas to flow, and I only have two hands.
The first thing I did when I had to buy 2 of the "modern" gas cans was to take a pair of pliers and dig-out the no-spill feature, leaving me with a straight nozzle.
I went to the new tanks about ten years ago and I agree it was awkward at first by I have learned to be very structured filling my tanks.
The old fashioned way of merely tilting a can and pouring the gas until it spilled over the fill spout has gone the way of cigarettes and shots and beers.
One thing that always bothered me was the fact that venting gasoline forces loss of octane. That is one reason old gas wrecks starting ability.
The cumulative affect of gas fumes from millions of tanks is real. The American Cancer Society does identify benzene a definite cause of cancer.
We can observe that in nearly all brownfield and hazardous waste sites a common element is benzene. We use gasoline for nearly everything and the effort is to minimize harm. So its the usual trade is weather health and long term harm more important than doing things the same ol’ same ol’ way.
But not to worry - Pruitt will soon be encouraging no regulation on anything anywhere, anyway.
I worked on the Cuyahoga and Buffalo Rivers in the pre-regulation 1960’s. Fires were really rare. But our biggest fear was to actually fall in the water, especially with an open wound. Scary.
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