I realise you are discussing 'hot' gas, but interestingly, in Canada, where the oil companies were on the wrong end of that 1 cent per gallon, 'cold' gas was a big enough issue that temperature compensation became customary in how fuel was handled in Canada -

'Five years ago major Canadian oil companies, with the approval of Measurement Canada, accepted a system devised by U.S. oil refiners for their upstream operations and set a retail industry standard of temperature compensation at 15 degrees Celsius. As such, most retailers in Canada now have temperature compensated equipment that adjusts to that standard. Unfortunately for consumers, the average temperature in Canada is 6 degrees Celsius. Thus, a wrong standard was imposed at the retail level and refiners are the net beneficiaries.

It is a fact that 15 degrees Celsius is the American Petroleum Institute's accepted standard at the time of product transfer between refinery pipelines, ships and terminals. However, in all northern US states where the average ambient temperature is below that mark, industry practice, or law, excludes the sale of petroleum on a corrected basis into tank trucks or retail. In most states where the average temperature is above 15 degrees Celsius, retailers sell product on an ambient basis. In either case, the method of sale at retail benefits the consumer while in Canada the opposite is true.'

http://www.cbc.ca/consumers/market/files/cars/gasprice/committee.html

Nice to see that Americans are finally getting 'hosed' like Canadians.

'By converting to 15 degrees Celsius, Ontario consumers, for example, over several months of the year, receive less gasoline for the same dollar spent than if they were to purchase product at ambient temperature. Through the use of temperature correction devices in tank and retail pumps, the Canadian major refiner-marketer has added in excess of $100 million a year to gross margins in the province alone.

That figure represents an absolute transfer of wealth from the consumer to the oil companies when compared to the situation prior to the implementation of costly ATC devices. As it now stands, purchasing gasoline that has been temperature compensated at 15 degrees Celsius is heavily penalizing consumers throughout Canada.

The Committee recommends that either Automatic Temperature Compensation be removed from use in Canada or, to avoid the losses incurred to install expensive ATC devices, that the 15 degrees Celsius mark be lowered to the average regional temperature in which product is sold at the tank and retail level.'

So considering that the equipment is so expensive, I'm sure you will detail why Canadian gasoline retailers should no longer be burdened with such overhead - or at least that in Canada and the northern America states, another standard than 15° C should be used.

Being cynical, though, I'm pretty sure we won't see that article. It is likely to be a bit too big picture, instead of quibbling over gasoline at 60 degrees F and gasoline at 64.7 degrees F. Though it seems as if in Canada, the free market works - the equipment was adopted voluntarily, while in the U.S., it is something which would make gasoline more expensive 'as every retailer tries to recoup the cost of temperature compensation equipment.' I guess in Canada, the equation worked out. The invisible hand at work, though pickpocketing sounds so uncouth.

However, in all credit, the amount of time wasted on this topic is already hard to imagine - I can't even imagine how European style fuel taxes could be introduced in a system where .25 cent a liter is thought of as a big deal. Germany's fuel prices increased 3% overnight, when the VAT was raised - and this issue is about .3%, it seems.