Pennsylvania Code
Pennsylvania Code & Bulletin
COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA

• No statutes or acts will be found at this website.

The Pennsylvania Bulletin website includes the following: Rulemakings by State agencies; Proposed Rulemakings by State agencies; State agency notices; the Governor’s Proclamations and Executive Orders; Actions by the General Assembly; and Statewide and local court rules.

PA Bulletin, Doc. No. 22-1047

NOTICES

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Bureau of Ride and Measurement Standards; Temporary Enforcement Guidance

[52 Pa.B. 3986]
[Saturday, July 16, 2022]

 The Department of Agriculture (Department), through the Bureau of Ride and Measurement Standards, administers and enforces the Consolidated Weights and Measures Act (act) (3 Pa.C.S. §§ 4101—4194) and its attendant regulations. This guidance document establishes a temporary enforcement policy regarding half-gallon pricing at certain retail fuel pumps and applies to all regulated retail motor fuel dispensers currently in use in this Commonwealth. The policies and procedures outlined herein are not an adjudication or a regulation, and nothing in this temporary guidance shall affect regulatory requirements. Rather, this document establishes the framework within which the Department will exercise its administrative discretion under the circumstances described as follows.

Background

 Under the act, the Department adopts the National Institute of Standard and Technology (NIST) Handbook 44 as its regulatory standards for weighing and measuring equipment and transactions within this Commonwealth. NIST prescribes measurement standards for, among other things, motor fuel dispensers and requires a motor fuel dispenser to display and compute the total price-per-gallon or price-per-liter.

 Most retail motor fuel dispensers (for example, gas pumps) in use within this Commonwealth can display per-gallon prices more than $6, as well as calculate and display total prices based on that per-gallon price. However, some mechanical retail motor fuel dispensers (typically, older dispensers) have restraints on unit price displays and computing of the total price, such that they will not compute prices exceeding $5.999 per gallon.

 Given the recent and rapid increase in motor fuel prices across this Commonwealth, the Department has elected to implement—on a temporary basis—an enforcement policy that will allow for the sale of gasoline in half-gallon units, under the limited circumstances described as follows. This temporary policy shall only apply to retail motor fuel dispensers that cannot compute prices exceeding $5.999 per gallon.

Temporary Enforcement Policy

 The Department, and its weights and measures enforcement personnel, shall temporarily allow the operation of a retail motor fuel dispenser that computes prices by the half-gallon only if all of the following conditions are met at the dispensing facility:

 1. The motor fuel dispenser involved cannot display and compute unit prices of $6 per gallon or higher.

 2. The person selling motor fuel from the dispenser intends to charge $6 per gallon or more for the fuel being sold.

 3. The signage on the motor fuel dispenser is altered such that the ''total sale'' indication on the face of the dispenser is replaced with the statement ''one-half total sale'' or ''1/2 total sale.''

 4. The signage on the motor fuel dispenser is such that the ''price per gallon'' is displayed on the dispenser that is readily visible to the customer.

 5. Motor fuel dispensers at the facility that cannot display and compute unit prices of $6 per gallon or higher are in complete compliance with these requirements.

 6. Street price posting and other forms of advertising setting forth the sale price of motor fuel shall display the unit price-per-gallon or the unit price-per-liter, as appropriate.

 7. The dispensing facility has ordered an upgrade kit which will permit the motor fuel dispenser to display and compute unit prices of $6 per gallon and higher and the dispensing facility retains proof of that order and makes it available for inspection upon request of any inspector employed by this Department.

 8. The dispensing facility provides this Department (in the verification form described as follows) a reasonable date by which the upgrade kit will be installed, and notifies this Department, in writing, if installation cannot ultimately occur by that date.

 9. The dispensing facility has delivered to this Department by hand-delivery, mail, fax or other electronic means a verification form confirming compliance with the requirements outlined herein and retains a copy of that verification form at the dispensing facility, and makes it available for inspection upon request of any inspector employed by this Department. This form can be requested from the Department by telephone at (717) 787-9089 or by e-mail at ra-wghts&measures@pa.gov.

 This temporary enforcement policy shall remain in effect until further notice.

RUSSELL C. REDDING, 
Secretary

[Pa.B. Doc. No. 22-1047. Filed for public inspection July 15, 2022, 9:00 a.m.]


No part of the information on this site may be reproduced for profit or sold for profit.

This material has been drawn directly from the official Pennsylvania Bulletin full text database. Due to the limitations of HTML or differences in display capabilities of different browsers, this version may differ slightly from the official printed version.