ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 Florida leaders have issued an emergency order allowing the sale of winter-grade gasoline for 90 days beginning May 1 in an effort to provide relief as gas prices remain high across Florida.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
Florida issued a 90-day emergency order allowing winter-grade gasoline sales starting May 1
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Experts say summer fuel blends are more expensive to produce but reduce emissions in higher temperatures
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Economists warn global conflicts and supply issues could still drive prices higher
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Drivers are encouraged to maintain vehicles and consider carpooling to reduce fuel costs<\/p>\n
The move comes as summer approaches, a time when fuel prices traditionally increase due to changes in gasoline blends and higher demand.<\/p>\n
\u201cSummer gas uses a different blend of chemicals in the gasoline that is burned in automobiles,\u201d said Tom Fullerton, an economics professor at University of Texas El Paso. \u201cThe reason that summer blends add some chemicals and remove some other chemicals is because the normal gasoline blend that is used in the wintertime will evaporate more rapidly during the summer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Experts say the shift between winter and summer gasoline is rooted in chemistry and environmental regulations.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmerican refineries for about the last 55 years have been removing things like butane and other chemicals from American gasoline so that we avoid excessive smog and other type of pollutants in the atmosphere. And the reason for that is that it is bad for the economy and it harms people\u2019s health,\u201d Fullerton said.<\/p>\n
The change in formulation, however, comes at a cost.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt costs more to make the summer blend, but it puts out fewer of these chemicals,\u201d said Sean Snaith, a UCF economics professor.<\/p>\n
Local mechanics also say drivers may notice differences in performance between seasonal blends. Kenny Sloan, owner of Sloan\u2019s Automotive, explained that winter gasoline can result in slightly different fuel efficiency compared to summer blends, which are designed to burn differently.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would imagine if prices with gas keeps going up or stay up high, people are going to drive a little bit less,\u201d said Sloan.<\/p>\n
As Florida attempts to ease pressure on drivers by extending the use of winter-grade fuel, economists warn that broader global forces could still impact prices.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf (the Iran war) persists, if it intensifies, we can see prices go even higher regardless of what mix is being sold at the pump,\u201d said Snaith.<\/p>\n
Officials say the emergency order is intended to provide temporary relief, but experts suggest drivers may still need to adjust habits to manage fuel costs. Recommendations include carpooling and maintaining vehicles to improve fuel efficiency and reduce trips to the pump.<\/p>\n
The full emergency order can be found below:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 Florida leaders have issued an emergency order allowing the sale of winter-grade gasoline for 90…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235203,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2173,2175,6507,4805,115,1335,139,141,140,135,2180,729,2177,835],"class_list":{"0":"post-235202","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-app-traffic-transit","9":"tag-app-traffic-and-transit","10":"tag-ashley-engle","11":"tag-gas","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-orange-county","14":"tag-orlando","15":"tag-orlando-headlines","16":"tag-orlando-news","17":"tag-tampa","18":"tag-topic-latest-traffic-transit-news","19":"tag-traffic","20":"tag-traffic-and-transit","21":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}