Laissez Faire Today

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How Government Wrecked the Gas Can

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The gas gauge broke. There was no smartphone app to tell me how much was left, so I ran out. I had to call the local gas station to give me enough to get on my way. The gruff but lovable attendant arrived in his truck and started to pour gas in my car’s tank. And pour. And pour.

“Hmmm, I just hate how slow these gas cans are these days,” he grumbled. “There’s no vent on them.”

That sound of frustration in this guy’s voice was strangely familiar, the grumble that comes when something that used to work but doesn’t work anymore, for some odd reason we can’t identify.

I’m pretty alert to such problems these days. Soap doesn’t work. Toilets don’t flush. Clothes washers don’t clean. Light bulbs don’t illuminate. Refrigerators break too soon. Paint discolors. Lawnmowers have to be hacked. It’s all caused by idiotic government regulations that are wrecking our lives one consumer product at a time, all in ways we hardly notice.

It’s like the barbarian invasions that wrecked Rome, taking away the gains we’ve made in bettering our lives. It’s the bureaucrats’ way of reminding market producers and consumers who is in charge.

Surely, the gas can is protected. It’s just a can, for goodness sake. Yet he was right. This one doesn’t have a vent. Who would make a can without a vent unless it was done under duress? After all, everyone knows to vent anything that pours. Otherwise, it doesn’t pour right and is likely to spill.

It took one quick search. The whole trend began in (wait for it) California. Regulations began in 2000, with the idea of preventing spillage. The notion spread and was picked up by the EPA, which is always looking for new and innovative ways to spread as much human misery as possible.

An ominous regulatory announcement from the EPA came in 2007: “Starting with containers manufactured in 2009… it is expected that the new cans will be built with a simple and inexpensive permeation barrier and new spouts that close automatically.”

The government never said “no vents.” It abolished them de facto with new standards that every state had to adopt by 2009. So for the last three years, you have not been able to buy gas cans that work properly. They are not permitted to have a separate vent. The top has to close automatically. There are other silly things now, too, but the biggest problem is that they do not do well what cans are supposed to do.

And don’t tell me about spillage. It is far more likely to spill when the gas is gurgling out in various uneven ways, when one spout has to both pour and suck in air. That’s when the lawn mower tank becomes suddenly full without warning, when you are shifting the can this way and that just to get the stuff out.

There’s also the problem of the exploding can. On hot days, the plastic models to which this regulation applies can blow up like balloons. When you release the top, gas flies everywhere, including possibly on a hot engine. Then the trouble really begins.

Never heard of this rule? You will know about it if you go to the local store. Most people buy one or two of these items in the course of a lifetime, so you might otherwise have not encountered this outrage.

Yet let enough time go by. A whole generation will come to expect these things to work badly. Then some wise young entrepreneur will have the bright idea, “Hey, let’s put a hole on the other side so this can work properly.” But he will never be able to bring it into production. The government won’t allow it because it is protecting us!

It’s striking to me that the websites and institutions that complain about government involvement in our lives never mentioned this, at least not so far as I can tell. The only sites that seem to have discussed this are the boating forums and the lawn forums. These are the people who use these cans more than most. The level of anger and vitriol is amazing to read, and every bit of it is justified.

There is no possible rationale for these kinds of regulations. It can’t be about emissions really, since the new cans are more likely to result in spills. It’s as if some bureaucrat were sitting around thinking of ways to make life worse for everyone, and hit upon this new, cockamamie rule.

These days, government is always open to a misery-making suggestion. The notion that public policy would somehow make life better is a relic of days gone by. It’s as if government has decided to specialize in what it is best at and adopt a new principle: “Let’s leave social progress to the private sector; we in the government will concentrate on causing suffering and regress.”

You are already thinking of hacks. Why not just stab the thing with a knife and be done with it? If you have to transport the can in the car, that’s a problem. You need a way to plug the vent with something.

Some boating forums have suggested drilling a hole and putting a tire stem in there and using the screw top as the way to close the hole. Great idea. Just what I wanted to do with my Saturday afternoon, hacking the gas can to make it work exactly as well as it did three years ago, before government wrecked it.

You can also buy an old-time metal can. It turns out that special regulations pertain here, too, and it’s all about the spout, which is not easy to fill. They are also unusually expensive. I’m not sure that either of these options is ideal.

It fascinates me to see how these regulations give rise to market-based workarounds. I’ve elsewhere called this the speak-easy economy. The government bans something. No one likes the ban. People are determined to get on with their lives, regardless. They step outside the narrow bounds of the law.

It wouldn’t surprise me to find, for example, a sudden proliferation of heavy-duty “water cans” in 1- and 5-gallon sizes, complete with nice spouts and vents, looking almost exactly like the gas cans you could get anywhere just a few years ago. How very interesting to discover this.

Of course, this law-abiding writer would never advocate buying one of these and using it for some purpose other than what is written on the package. Doing something like that would show profound disrespect for our betters in the bureaucracies. And if I did suggest something like that, there’s no telling the trouble that it would bring down on my head.

Ask yourself this: If they can wreck such a normal and traditional item like this, and do it largely under the radar screen, what else have they mandatorily malfunctioned? How many other things in our daily lives have been distorted, deformed and destroyed by government regulations?

If some product annoys you in surprising ways, there’s a good chance that it is not the invisible hand at work, but rather the regulatory grip that is squeezing the life out of civilization itself.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000831932111 Scot Gossage

    I bought one of these new gas cans last night. What a piece of _____! My girlfriend’s car ran out of gas so I purchased this gas can at Wal-Mart. The instructions on the can were extremely difficult to follow and BOTH of the cans I tried to assemble (while I was at Wal-Mart) had a black plastic piece that fell down into the container as soon as I removed the lid / spout assembly. So even if I had the patience to
    follow the ridiculous assembly procedure I couldn’t because part of the assembly was rattling around inside the container! My solution to this dilemma? Buy a funnel and pour the gas from the container directly into the funnel without using the silly spout assembly. Talk about spillage! Not my problem. Her
    car now has gas in it and that’s all that matters.

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  • http://www.facebook.com/brian.meyers.52 Brian Meyers

    Okay, now that you’ve ranted and raved about crappy gas cans on this forum, go to your email (or whip out a piece of paper and a pen) and write your legislators and let them know how you feel about this. It’s fine and dandy to complain in an online forum or to your buddies over a beer. Contact the the people who came up with this rule and tell them. If there is any chance of getting this changed, it’s not going to happen by whining online. You need to be more proactive and contact the necessary governmental folks.

  • http://uncensored.citadel.org/ IGnatius T Foobar

    We need to push the damn reboot button on this government. Any law that doesn’t also exist on the tablets Moses brought down is excessive law.

  • spiderartist

    I have just taken for granted that I will have to hack many newer products to get them to function sensibly. Although it takes some of my time that i could dedicate to other pursuits, it’s worth it to avoid any recurring aggravation and besides, I make up for it by subverting the gubmint in other ways. One regulation you didn’t mention that has resulted in wasted time & energy is the water flow restricters on sink & shower faucet fixtures. Recycle centers (like Habitat for Humanity) can provide older fixtures, particularly the Delta brand, which can be refurbished and bring hot water quickly without having to, say, go mow the lawn while you wait for the new ones to warm up while they trickle on forever…

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  • http://twitter.com/ForrestSargente Forrest Sargente

    Since the jackbooted thugs in my state government banned phosphates in dishwasher detergents I’ve found that trisodium phosphate (TSP) works well as an additive to the dishwasher, just dump in a tablespoon. Just make sure you get the real TSP and not the knock off “green” garbage. It’s usually sold as a deck and concrete cleaner. The idiots who make our lives miserable have also lately forced the reformulation of fencepost and deck preservative, making it so that your wood rots three times faster now! Evidently some school teacher licked a treated post and got sick…go figure… I’m looking at home-brew reformulations for that now too.

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  • http://profiles.google.com/xterea Timothy Rea

    All unelected bureaucrats, each and every one. Their mission is to make our lives miserable.
    In addition to no vents, the new nozzles are virtually unworkable.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Brian-Epps/1578522006 Brian Epps
  • Adam Butera

    Wonderful article. Laughed out loud. We’ve all experienced what he’s talking about.

  • Sherard Anderson

    Oh this is so, SO true. Nothing like living through a blizzard, buying a new generator while you are without power for 5 days and buying 2 or 3 of these NIGHTMARE gas cans to brighten up your day. The whole idea of having to press the nozzle against the gas tank of the generator and then having it slip off 2 or 3 or 4 dozen times while it dribbles out a gallon of gas over 15 minutes is INFURIATING.

  • Brett_McS

    An excellent article., although I was amazed that Anthony De Jasay is not on the (extensive) author list of LFB. This sort of thing – the actions of The State vis a vis The Market – is what he has written so incisively about.

  • http://www.facebook.com/hans.herchen Hans Herchen

    The new jerry cans are ridiculous. Pantywaist liberals can celebrate. The rest of us have to live with the tyranny of the deluded environmentalists. Then only reason environmentalists have a good life is because practical people make it so.

  • 8z0kts6

    Is anyone else eagerly anticipating the Iranian nuclear weapon delivered over Washington DC? That appears to be the best chance at reining this juggernaut back. Citizens can then deal with their local Fed bureaucrats with the nearest light pole and some rope.

  • http://twitter.com/gafisher gafisher

    The article is entirely true, if a little late in noticing it. Fortunately, in the case of plastic gas cans, there are simple correctives which can be applied by anyone whose government hasn’t already deprived them of a pocket knife. Most of the other annoyances are more intractable, and the real problem no longer responds even to the constitutional restrictions originally intended to control it.

  • http://www.facebook.com/gregory.matti Gregory Matti

    I have a solution to this problem that I’ll throw out there for someone in the manufacturing sector. How about you produce cans which have the traditional screw top vent MINUS THE HOLE. An industrious consumer could buy this product on the market as a LEGAL gas can. Since the design technically meets the standard set forth. Once this industrious consumer brings the product home, they can remove the cap, drill the missing hole, and replace the damn cap like we did three years ago.
    Viola! I’m a frakking genius.

    • Crunkomatic

      Brilliant!

  • http://thevailspot.blogspot.com/ Rich Vail

    Political Correctness will be the death of this nation…it comes in many shapes and forms…mostly from the government.

    • 8z0kts6

      Political Correctness IS the death of this nation. It is already dead, only the death throes remain.

  • derfelcadarn

    I was managing a construction job that was being done at a NY State facility, I was instructed by a safety that I must write gas on the gas cans. Is anyone aware that there are color codes for combustible and flammable liquids ? Red for gasoline, yellow for diesel fuel and blue for kerosene, yet while fully in compliance was still required to write gas on the cans. Why do the make regulations and then have no idea of what they mean.

  • SandbagSix

    My example is the drop-side crib. Yes, there have been some infant deaths…about as many in a decade as infants who die daily in traffic accidents. While every infant death is a tragedy, freak accidents in drop-side cribs are hardly a scandal. But now, because of overzealous regulators and emotional “if-it-only-saves-one-life-it’s-worth-it” sophistry, they are illegal to sell or even donate.

    As a result:

    -New cribs will either be too deep to get your infants and toddlers out of without risking back injury, or too shallow to keep your toddler from crawling out of and risking all kinds of injury.

    -An entire generation of used cribs is unavailable for poor families who need low-cost or free options. Their choices are either to spend more money for new cribs (making less money available for other things, or to settle for a genuinely unsafe bedding option for the kids. (Dresser drawer, anyone?)

    See how that works? In the name of safety we decrease safety, and as a bonus we hurt the poor. Brilliant!

    • mamaO

      is this for real? ugh. My last two babies slept in playpens – cheaper and easier than a crib.

  • T McFall

    Even thinking of getting around these regulations is considered a violation against Fragile Mother Earth. This suffering you are complaining about is designed to save Fragile Mother Earth. No amount of sacrifice is enough, no minor regulation is too stupid, no witless idiotic brain dead bureaucratic law is too pointless to bring honor to Fragile Mother Earth.

    As penance for your sin you must sit in a corner for the next 24 hours and do nothing but meditate on how incredibly worthless you are compared to the great Fragile Mother Earth. Try not to consume anything during this time – food, valuable water, or even air – your very breath is an abomination that pollutes the purity of Fragile Mother Earth.

    And if you fully understand the height of your insignificance, you’ll give great consideration to sacrificing your offending life while making sure to donate body parts to the future enrichment of Fragile Mother Earth.

  • writeby

    Don’t It Always Seem To Go That You Don’t Know What You’ve Got Till It’s Gone

    Properly handled, none of these substances poses any greater risk to human life than do legal substances such as silver, copper, zinc, magnesium—or even chlorine bleach. Yet they are all gone. But the greens are happy to plow civilization and put up a jungle. If a few million die—or you have to buy less effective, less durable products—well, sacrifices have to be made, mister.

    (And therein lies the key to fighting this: the Christian morality of self-sacrifice. But I don’t expect many will clamor against that.)

    DDT

    Basis: The lies of Rachel Carson & the edict of Bill Ruckelshaus
    Result: Millions dead in developing nations

    Asbestos

    Basis: Flawed government research; de facto law
    Result: An entire industry wiped out; removal posed more risk than it eliminated.

    Medicinal Marijuana

    Basis: “Because I (government) said so.”
    Result: Debilitating pain for hundreds of thousands of the terminally ill

    Freon

    Basis:
    Junk (i.e., green) science
    Result: Largest black market is the U.S. next to illegal drugs

    Today Sponge
    Basis: “Because I (government) said so.”
    Result: Millions of women screwed (metaphorically speaking)
    (Thank you, Seinfeld. Back on the market.)

    PCBs

    Basis: Junk (i.e., green) science
    Result: Billions & billions of dollars wasted in unnecessary clean ups

    Chlordane

    Basis: Junk (i.e., green) science
    Result: Who cares about those fire ants’ northern migration?

    Mirex

    Basis: Junk (i.e., green) science
    Result: Well, they’re here; let’s help them to spread.

    Polychlorinated Naphthalene

    Basis: Junk (i.e., green) science
    Result: Ever wonder why your clothes, carpet, upholstery no longer clean up as well?

    Hexachlorobenzene

    Basis:
    Junk (i.e., green) science
    Result: Ever wonder why food costs keep skyrocketing?

    Aldrin

    Basis: Junk (i.e., green) science
    Result: Ever wonder why food costs keep skyrocketing?

    Dieldrin,

    Basis: Junk (i.e., green) science
    Result: Ever wonder why food costs keep skyrocketing?

    Endrin

    Basis: Junk (i.e., green) science
    Result: Ever wonder why food costs keep skyrocketing?

    CFCs

    Basis: Junk (i.e., green) science
    Result: Higher prices for the same or inferior product

    Carbon Tetrachloride

    Basis: Junk (i.e., green) science
    Result: “Dry clean”–you keep using that word; I do not think you know what it means.

    Halon

    Basis: Junk (i.e., green) science
    Result: Guess who gets burned?

    Lead

    Basis: Junk (i.e., green) science
    Result: Ever wonder why your car’s finish shows so many scratches?

    Cylert

    Basis:
    Junk (i.e., green) science
    Result: Most effective drug for the treatment of narcolepsy is no longer available

    Vioxx

    Basis:
    Junk (i.e., green) science
    Result: One of the most effective pain relief treatments no longer available

    • RobertCarl

      There is no self-sacrifice by the greens. Their leadership always seems to get a waiver.

  • http://www.facebook.com/alan.reasin Alan Reasin

    Yea, the new riding mowers won’t cut in reverse; the motor is stopped if
    you shift to reverse. My old mower had a selector to allow cutting in reverse.
    And they have hidden the cutout switch, but I will find it and jumper it out.
    Also 21 HP and greater mowers have to be hydraulic driven with accelerator
    peddles not speed selector positioners according to the sales man. Yet when the
    government required air bags in cars they knew from testing that they could kill
    some people and sure enough some small individuals and babies were killed. But
    the government worried that if that info came out, people would protest the use
    of air bags. No government official was prosecuted for involuntary homicide as
    they should have been. My letters were ignored.

  • http://radical-moderation.blogspot.com/ TheRadicalModerate

    You’ve got some examples in the post that I didn’t know about:

    1) What’s the deal with soap?

    2) I’ve noticed the washer (both dish- and clothes-) and refrigerator in my personal life, but what were the regulations that caused the crappy design choices?

    3) Paint discoloration?

    4) Lawnmowers? And hacked how?

    It’d be nice to have a running list of these things. Is there one somewhere?

  • Pingback: Gas Cans, Light Bulbs, Toilets, and Fruitstands | Junior Ganymede

  • cristo52

    Nice job. This is what happens when people who are qualified only to shake hands and lie are put in charge of making laws that require a background in engineering and physics.

  • Bruno_Behrend

    Someone needs to start manufacturing products that work again, and then start selling them on a cruise ship just off shore.

    I can’t believe we put up with this crap.

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  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=688207109 Charlie Red

    HA! Unlike the author I’m going to advocate finding and buying the water cans and using them for gas cans. Cause our government is stupid, full of stupid people. How can we fix it when the people with the stupid ideas try over and over and over again to push their agenda so relentlessly that people either give in to it, or get tricked by disguised legislation.

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  • http://www.facebook.com/quentin.clark.35 Quentin Clark

    Next it will be pressure cookers.

  • Michael Gelb

    Its not all the governments fault. Some times the lawyers get involved too:

    http://www.facesoflawsuitabuse.org/2012/12/the-last-week-how-lawsuits-doomed-an-american-icon/

    • R Sweeney

      Government IS lawyers.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Tim-Jones/100000497335008 Tim Jones

    Bravo, sir. Bravo. I’ve been cursing these new cans, the EPA, and the government for the last few years, every time I have to refill my mower. And my cursing usually includes some variation of “Is there no part of life safe from these meddlesome, know-it-all do-gooders?”

  • http://www.facebook.com/granny.flower Granny Flower

    I hate my new washing machine. It is a replacement for a 24 year old Maytag that I inherited from my Mom. The new one has a label, “Maytag” BUT – it is no Maytag – it isn’t even much of a washing machine of any name. It is a top loading “HE” and requires one to put the soap in, start it, wait until it goes through several minutes of “diagnosing” itself” and fills with water – then press a “pause” button which takes another half minute to recognize the push and unlock the lid before allowing you to actually put your clothes in. Can’t put them in before the fill because, with the low water usage, undissolved detergent will stick to the clothes AND, God forbid, you want to add one more thing after the thing starts washing! Won’t go into the steps and time to accomplish that – the lid is locked the whole time. There is no dial – just panel “idiot” lights. Did I mention it takes over an hour to do one load? Want to fill the tub and the load soak for a while then start it again? – forget about it – after a few minutes the water automatically drains. My wish for the evil bureaucrats that came up with this obamanation and the lawyers that aided and abetted them (neither of whom have ever done a load of washing themselves) is for all of their teeth to fall out the day before Thanksgiving.

    • bobrosie

      Granny, We had an old Maytag washing machine that lasted and lasted, with laundry from a family of 10! I used to marvel at the rare times I had to change a belt or something small at the solidity of construction….all metal…no plastic. Those days are gone. Plastic parts all over the place now and Maytag’s are no better than the other junk piles the stores sell as washing machines.

    • mamaO

      My top load he Kenmore works great!
      Use liquid detergent and no worries about dissolving.
      It has a soak option that will keep the clothes in the soapy water for 15, 30, or 45 minutes.
      If you start it empty as you describe it will think it’s a small load and won’t use enough water.
      Mine also has a “add a garment” light to indicate at which point you can still add clothes and it will get clean.
      Maybe it’s not the modern machines, but just the one you chose, or the way you operate it.
      No, I don’t work for Sears or the EPA. :)

  • skeets11

    Screw the feds. I unscrew the stupid spout and use a funnel.

  • Robert T

    Put gas in a water can? Guess what! You’re now a Felon!(tm)

  • Enzyte Bob

    Is the government really so dumb that they don’t think people will find workarounds? I recently bought three of those new-fangled plastic “cans” in order to make the most of my grocery-store fuel points. My workaround is by taking the nozzle off and using a funnel. Is this really any safer than just leaving the vent hole where it belongs?

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  • altaylor

    How about ethanol in gas, or as I call it, “Killer of Small Engine Carburetors.” I recently had to rebuild my snowblower carburetor because ethanol destroyed the rubber. My mother had to do the same for her lawnmower.
    Now I only buy ethanol free gas for small gas engine equipment. I recommend it.

  • DirtyDave

    Sure, let the market work, but think of the bureaucrats that could be put of of work.

    Oh, yeah.

  • Murph

    There are different types of plastic, some securely stores gas, some do not. Put gas into the same jug your milk came in and after awhile the jug will start leaking. Before a hypothetical person decides to store some hypothetical gasoline in a hypothetical container sold as a water jug, and you can’t find out what type of hypothetical plastic was used, it’s a good idea to test your hypothetical water jug to make sure your not going to spring an actual leak while transporting gas in a jug marketed and sold to contain water.
    As an example, the plastic used to make the ‘clip’ that stores the water for a battery powered water gun that looks like an UZI is hypothetically speaking, a grade of plastic that is gasoline degradable.
    What you don’t know will kill you=)

    • Crunkomatic

      solution: metal.

      • Murph

        Oh sure if you want to be all rational about it.=)

  • harkin

    I mowed my dad’s lawn this past weekend and when I went to fill the tank I told him that I could not get the safety/environmental mechanism on the fuel can to work so the gas would pour. When I asked my dad how to operate it he just said “that thing has never worked, just do what I do, unscrew it all the way and use a funnel”. Thanks to my home state of CA for that bit of anti-progress.

  • gearbox123

    Maybe with the advent of 3-D printing, people can start creating the plans for revolutionary objects like gas can lids with holes in them.

  • Givemeliberty

    And this is just the gas can. Think about all the ways they’ve made the cars more complex (not to mention more expensive!). And they’re still doing it, year in and year out.

  • http://twitter.com/jagnationexpat Jag Nation Expat

    This is so true. I recently had to buy a washing machine and I was amazed at how expensive and problematic they had become since the last one I bought 7-8 years ago, all due to government regulations. They’ve got us moving backwards, it’s nuts.

  • rhhardin

    They may be slow if you’re filling a car tank, but they work fine on small gas engine tanks, at least mine does.

    The principle is that air has to glug in in the same spout opening that the gas comes out. When the level in the tank reaches the spout, air can’t glug in, so the gas flow out stops.

    So: make sure that the end of the spout is inside the tank at the level you want it to stop at. Otherwise you get no benefit from it.

    It works for me. I can fill the generator in the dark without the customary overflow from being unable to see the gas level.

  • Pingback: How Government Wrecked the Gas Can « The Big Think

  • bgbear_rogerh

    and I thought I was the only one who notices. The new spouts are a nightmare. I took spout to the shop and cut the end off. ugh.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Alec-Rawls/220013 Alec Rawls

    The vents on old gas always have a screw-on or snap-on cap. Completely solves the issue of vapors venting from the vent, but the government didn’t want to trust people to close the vent when they weren’t pouring.

    The new cans aren’t just inconvenient, they are a tremendous hazard, with the amount of pressure that can build up inside on a hot day in the sun. As the new cans start to age more and more of them will split under the pressure, not only venting more gas than the old cans collectively ever would, but doing untold damage through fires and chemical destructivenes.

    Ever got gasoline on your skin? The stuff is seriously reactive.

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  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003245120745 Mark Jansen

    Adding trisodium phosphate (TSP), available in cleaning/painting supplies department of home improvement stores, will make you dishwasher detergent work again.

  • Pelastusvene

    I have been blaming my wife and Canada (the can was made there) for the crappy gas can I have been using to fill up my lawnmower for the last year.

    I gave up trying to use the spout which requires pressure to permit pouring and simply take it off when I need to pour gas. Of course I spill but at least now I know this is by Government design.

  • t-dahlgren

    Do what I did, walk over to the plumbing section, select a small threaded brass fixture of the kind used for refrigerator water lines, and a corresponding brass cap. Then drill out a slightly undersized hole into the top of the can, and screw the fixture into the can. Now your can has a proper vent.

    Yes, it’s an added expense, but at least your gas can will not be quite so useless/dangerous. And it is a tiny thumb in the eye of the EPA.

  • http://profiles.google.com/thinksink Jeff H

    I say, let them drink gasoline!!! In fact, FORCE THEM to drink it, and then light a cigarette in their mouth.

  • Babs

    HaHaHa, great article. Someone will probably invent and add on vent and make a fortune from it!

  • Yabba_Dabba

    Having bought various gas cans over a period of thirty years, I can vouch that current cans SUCK. Also, the price of gas cans has skyrocketed – a corrollary effect of over-regulation as well. Not only did functionality suffer, but now we’re forced by non-market forces to pay a huge amount for dysfunctional government-mandated garbage. (Which is what Obamacare will be like on mutant steroids)

  • hankreardon

    Jeff, I miss you so much at mises.org. You are genius and that genius is in recognizing the the most obvious that seems to escape everyone else. I have long tried to tell people that we are not a free society, and usually get odd stares. until I ask them to carry around a piece of paper and a pen, then throughout the course of their day list all the things they are doing and how they are regualted, controlled, taxed, subsidized, etc., by the government. I’ll mention that by around 9AM they’ll have proven my point. or is it by 7AM!!

  • Captain_Larry

    I just purchased a gas can from Home Depot – (or maybe Lowes – doesn’t really matter) but it works just fine. Maybe the writer needs gas pouring lessons.

    • http://twitter.com/Tomblvd Tom

      If you can’t remember what store you “just” bought you gas can from, how can we be sure you remember whether or not it worked properly?

      • Adam Butera

        Ha!

  • Chris Funguy

    how long before they ban cans all together and you have to take your snow blower, or lawn mower right to the distributer to fill it.

    • JustDon

      Nah.

      They’ll mandate that any new mower be electric (or, perhaps,
      that it be “zero emissions”). This will result in you being able to mow
      a third of your lawn at a time, then waiting for the mower to charge
      before you can get back to it.

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  • JackSheet

    Living in Florida need to store hurricane gas so I have run into this.

    NATO/Wehrmacht jerry cans, the finest gasoline container ever devised, are now illegal.

    I bought some new ones that are marked Not For Fuel Use to comply with Kalifornia/EPA stupidity.

    Additional reading on this topic “Three Felonies a Day”.

    When everyone is a “criminal” social control is much easier.

  • Laura Blanchard

    I went shopping for a new gas stove and was appalled to find out that pilot lights have been regulated out of existence. I guess I’ll have to look for a used stove in better shape than the one I’ve got.

  • tomatopundit

    Seems to me that functional plastic gas can spouts are a prime candidate for 3D printing. But they’d be undetectable and illegal, and the Dept of Defense would claim they’re a class 1 munition…

  • http://twitter.com/netmarcos Mark M Webster
    • Murph

      An people say entrepreneurship is dead=)

  • http://profiles.google.com/sl0re10 S H

    don’t drill a used can. Start with a new one. Gas only seems to evaporate really quickly. There is always enough left, somehow, for a gas vapor explosion.

  • stevec77

    I use these vent-less ‘cans’ all the time. I have to say that they are not as slow or as useless as you describe. I think your grumbling is a little over the top on this one example. I have two things to say. The first being that these cans are slower but definitely safer and worth it. The second thing is that surely you cannot be in such a hurry that you have to grumble about extra time it takes to pour five gallons of fuel? As to all else you write about i.e. the crazy obsession with safety that all governments use as a tool to intrude into our lives, yes, I hate it too. It is an unchecked point of view and actions of the so called governing intelligentsia churning this stuff out at an unbelievable and growing pace.

    • Dr Why

      Sir, you are a weirdo.

    • tomatopundit

      Please tell us where you got your vent-less can that works properly. I’ve had three of them over the last few years, in various configurations, and all of them spilled fuel. The one in my garage now has a weird spring-loaded, notched spout that makes it very difficult to hold when filling my Kawasaki motorcycle tank. Lift, twist, pull, lean, hope it doesn’t leak … and … hold that pose until the can is empty! Good grief, man! I’m about to go all DEFCAD on the gas can.

      • stevec77

        I’ve been using it for a few years now and can’t remember if it was my local Ace hardware or Home Depot. It does have a small learning curve, very small as compared to our phones.

        • Bigfoot Steve

          It does have a small learning curve,

          It’s a freakin’ gas can, not a smart phone….there shouldn’t be any learning curve.

          • stevec77

            Ah, but even the ‘old fashion’ cans had a learning curve.

    • alanstorm

      See comment by Ed Minchau above. It’s like taxes – yes, each new tax may be only pennies on the dollar, but multiply that by thousands and it’s not so insignificant anymore.

      Mindless regulations do this to our time, which is, in the end, the only thing you really have. It takes another 30 seconds? Not a big deal, until you realize how many of these little 30-second bites you have to deal with every day.

      • stevec77

        I feel exactly the same way. However, the answer isn’t to do nothing. I think the question of who decides what are appropriate safety improvements/regulations is the great question we should be debating. How do we as a society choose? Can our system for deciding and challenging be improved? The system we have currently is slow, expensive, relentless, non discriminating and intrusive. It is awful but, it does provide means for legal, legitimate redress.

        • Adam Butera

          Why not just let people choose for themselves? Why must everything be shoved down our throats like we are children?

        • Weirddave

          How about nobody? How about we go back to being a society of free, responsible citizens? If someone is stupid enough to cut off their ends of their fingers because they tried to pick up the lawn mower to prune the hedge, well, they’re just going to have to live with being called “Stubs” for the rest of their life.

    • JustDon

      For the most part I am able to use my new government-approved gas can just fine. However, when the safety and environmental “features” collide with the same “features” on the item receiving the gas, I have a problem.

      If I want to add a little gas to my car, I can’t. Because the car is required to have a little device that closes the gas filler tube off when it does not have a fuel hose in it (even though I have a cap that is perfectly capable of doing so), and my gas can has the same requirement, I have a problem. My gas can nozzle is incapable of opening my filler tube nozzle if I place the gas can so that it is opened to pour, so I spill more gas that goes into the tank. (I’m not actually sure *any* makes it into the tank.) The only way to make it work is to intentionally disable one of these two safety “features.”

      Now, you might say that the problem is that I shouldn’t be filling my car from a gas can – and in general folks don’t. However, occasionally somebody will run out of gas – or be close enough to doing so that they need to “top off.” Add to that the likelihood that the EPA is likely to add a requirement for a “self-closing” gas tank to small engines such as lawnmowers at some point, and we wind up with a real problem.

  • rasqual

    I’ve thought a lot of these same thoughts, and although there’s no shortage of ridiculous regulation (along with some good regulation), the can has been the most compelling example of the moronitude.

    It’s even worse, though, when engineers apparently design things out of apparent contempt for the regulations/standards. “That’s stupid. Fine. Whatever. They apparently don’t want it to work well at all, so why should I beat my head against the wall trying to make lemonade out of this lemon?”

    Example: battery posts. They ostensibly design jumper cables to clip on to those side-post things that stick out all of a quarter inch, with the insulation on the connection thick enough to prevent the also-insulated clips on the cable from catching on the little indent for the posts. You risk sparks, cable dropping in the serpentine — all kinds of crap because of the ludicrous “standard” to which everyone hews.

    But the gas cans . . . just magnificent.

    You know what this world needs? A cartoonist who can do with government what Dilbert did with business. It’d be a lot more fertile ground for daily strips, that’s for sure.

  • ElmerEvans

    The key point to remember in all this – Government bureaucrats were hired to test, write and enforce these idiotic regs.

    And ALL of them vote Democrat.

    • http://www.facebook.com/edward.callahan.372 Edward Callahan

      and not a one ever has to actually use the things they wreck….their people handle that stuff.

      • http://twitter.com/ForrestSargente Forrest Sargente

        Just like they have their own armed security details so they don’t have to touch a scary gun that they’re to inept to handle anyway.

    • alexandroid

      erm… hello? can you read? Lookup wikipedia for Stephen L. Johnson (Republican) who was administrator of EPA January 26, 2005 – January 20, 2009 when those documents were developed.

  • DelawareBeachHouse

    Think the trial lawyers are more to blame. It was bogus lawsuits that drove the largest gas-can manufacturer out of business, Blitz USA in Miami, Oklahoma.

    http://www.instituteforlegalreform.com/media/video/who-are-the-faces-of-lawsuit-abuse-the-blitz-usa-plant-in-miami-ok

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  • AudreyA

    Used one for the first time the other day–trying to get the gas out while holding that shut-off valve open led to gas all over my hand (which is bad for you as your skin absorbs gas quite readily) which torqued me–so of course I took the d**m thing off and just poured it into the mower. It’s not designed to pour that way so I did spill more gas on the tank but hey, at least it wasn’t on me. They did this because the laws are made by idiots who think gas cans are only for cars; they’ve never mowed a yard or done an honest day’s work in their life.

    by the way, I told a shop teacher about my husband using gas to wash tools and he said, “Gas is absorbed right through the skin and goes straight to your liver. Use diesel instead.” Biodiesel is actually safe.

    • JustDon

      For the record… these gas cans work even worse for cars than they do for lawnmowers, so their ineptitude can’t be explained by that.

      • http://twitter.com/Gator_Country Stephen K

        You’re right about that. At the end of last mowing season I had a small amount of gas left in the can, and wanted to put it in the car gas tank to use it up. I couldn’t pour it into the tank from the can, though, so I ended up pouring it out onto the ground.

        Real environmentally friendly.

  • bret c

    Wow, you people are IDIOTS!!!! I didn’t think there really were idiots of this magnitude–but seeing is believing, or is it?!!! Maybe it’s all a government plot-LOLOLOLOLOLLO!!!!! With all the REAL problems we have today gas cans are a concern–pathetic!!!

    • bohemond

      The voice of a sheep.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Ed-Minchau/585388791 Ed Minchau

      Have you ever heard of the phrase “death by a thousand cuts”? The gas can may be trivial, but it is one of thousands of such trivial idiocies that make all our lives unnecessarily more difficult. One second lost in a day isn’t much, but a thousand seconds…

    • Dr Why

      Apparently you have never done anything. If you had ever done anything you would know what it’s like.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Ferd-Berfel/751553141 Ferd Berfel

      Exactly Bret! Let’s turn your question around: With all the REAL problems we have today, why should government concern itself with gas can design? – LOLOLOLOLOLOLO!!!! – you’re the one that’s pathetic!!!

    • mark abrams

      Dearest Brett it obvious that YOU have a lot of real problems, Perhaps you can solve many of them by self-immolation. But then you would come to appreciate the difficulties of using the modern gas can.

  • ModestMouse

    Garage & estate sales! Bought two today for $13.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Tony-Bright/1584427485 Tony Bright

    http://ezpourspout.com/wp/

    Your can doesn’t know if it was made pre or post 2009 :)

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  • Hector Talonos

    Please! The government doesn’t do anything – the government is comprised of bureaucrats and other low forms of enforcement life.

    CORRUPT POLITICIANS passed these laws. SOVIET BUREAUCRATS enforced these laws.

    Stop blaming the “government” and do some research. NAME NAMES! Do some research, put names to these acts of tyranny. We want names!

    • Sage McLaughlin

      Uh, no. Nobody passed a law. Read the article. A bureaucrat made the regulation. That is how government does 98% of what it does nowadays, through agencies staffed by unelected bureaucrats with extremely open-ended mandates to write regulations in keeping with the mission, whatever that might be, of said agency.

      • alexandroid

        According to wikipedia Stephen L. Johnson (Republican) was the administrator of EPA January 26, 2005 – January 20, 2009 when said documents were developed.

    • http://chicagoboyz.net/ TMLutas

      I’d be satisfied with a code number so I can petition for a repeal of this.

      For a general solution to the problem of this sort of economic grit in our engines try Citizen Intelligence.
      http://www.citizenintelligence.org

    • Kristina

      So…governments don’t make laws. People make laws.

      • http://profiles.google.com/erik.zolan Erik Zolan

        People don’t make laws. Nerve firings do.

        You all going to do something about nerve firings?

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  • Obummer is a stooge

    Blame EPA and CARB!
    Forget the plastic!
    Get the NATO/Jerrycan. Multiple sizes available.
    Sadly, Americans no longer can manufacture a decent working gas can!
    http://www.deutscheoptik.com/product_info.php?products_id=1718
    *Note the disclaimer that the cans are not for “fuel” use!
    HA!

    • http://www.facebook.com/andy.rem.3 Andy Rem

      They have been scaring people silly for the past 40 years with all this environmental propaganda and now the EPA has been basically given a free-pass to destroy civilization through over regulation. My new Harley is set to run so lean that I need to put over a thousand dollars into it just to make it not burn my legs. I am sitting on cheap clean natural gas under my property in upstate NY that they won’t let me drill.

  • Ron

    I decided to by a thermometer,oh yippie no more mercury ones,i guess little kids eat them.
    Every review said this model dosent work well or show the correct temp.all non mercury types.
    Our digital one is off also.
    I dont know how it is now but they werent selling mini bikes because of the exhaust,i guess kids nowadays put theyre face in front of the exhaust opening when the bikes are running.

  • Justin

    dude dont get me started on the gas can issue!!! i used to work on a const site that because we were workin on a military base we had to follow all kinds of rediculous rules like this one: all gas cans have to be made of metal and have a regulation pour spout (such as the ones mentioned in the article), the kicker to me was we had to have gas cans made of metal yet almost all the gas tanks on ANY piece of equipment from weed eaters to powerwashers to skid loaders have PLASTIC gas tanks!!!!! so what is the damn point of having the gasoline in a metal container when every machine that requires gas has plastic tanks!!!??!!?? dubmest thing ive ever hear, when i brought this up at a saftey meeting the supervisor actually got snippy with me!! what a dick right!! not my fault if im smarter than you and notice dumb shit like this!! i just pointed out the inconsistancy of it all and how rediculious it sounds!! thoughts anyone??

    • stevec77

      Hey…mums the word on those remaining plastic tanks….you’ll give ‘them’ ideas.

  • stuff

    For easy pouring; Buy a funnel, unscrew and remove the top of your new gas can. Turn the gas can sideways so when you pour there is always an air gap. Problem solved.

  • Binne

    I use kerosene for supplementary heat in the winter. I have several old kerosene cans, which have vents, but I wanted a couple-three more to keep on hand. The only new cans I found not only aren’t vented, but they have these cockamamie “safety” caps that are almost impossible to open. I have arthritis in both my hands, and I’ve had to use a really big pliers to get the &*()%+#@ cap off. After two seasons the plastic ratchet is wearing down and the cap comes off more easily. So not only are they hard to get open, but the “safety” mechanism, the ratchet, doesn’t do what it’s supposed to after a while. These new cans are not an improvement on the old ones, which are at least 20 years old.

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  • emdfl

    Just find a source for “NATO” style cans.

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  • Mitchell-W2MYA

    The old gov’t line,”we know what”s best for you,don’t do as I do ;do as I say!!”These damned fools justify their position over us (pee-ons) by dreaming up new foolish laws to harass us-Thank goodness I’ve 7 or 8 older ones,both steel & plastic.To quote Charlton Heston,”From My Cold Dead Hands”Don’t ever give ‘em, up if we do we’re done as a free nation.(former-GY/SGT.G.L.Mitchell-U.S.M.C.R.)

  • Gamma Banana
    • http://www.anzaborrego.net Bob

      great article
      Correct the Scepter Gas cans mentioned above are pretty much the best you can buy.
      Unfortunately they are for military purchase only

  • Bob

    Ice Pick / Golf Tee No more problem.

  • http://unitedconservatives.blogspot.com/googlec8cecfe721463604.html Cargosquid

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  • Paul in NJ

    “Heavy duty water cans like these?”

    Oh, _so_ sorry, citizen, but it would be unlawful for any gas station to fill them. You see, gummint-approved gas cans need to be red. It’s the law. Those, you see, are beige. Yes, yes, they may be manufactured to exactly the same specifications, but… well, never mind, citizen. It’s the law.

    What? You say some may be EPA- approved or DOT-approved, and what’s the difference? That, little Adam, is another story.

    • Mike Matalucci

      Red for gas, blue for kero, and yellow for diesel. Just in case your nose doesn’t work.

    • Bob H

      Would it be legal to buy the “water can” and paint it red?

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Paul-Smith/100002359397419 Paul Smith

      Umm, you may not have noticed but gas stations don’t fill gas tanks/cans any longer. . .customers do

      • BooMushroom

        Unless you live in Oregon ;)

    • kcgunesq

      Believe it or not, approximately 49 states actually allow customers to pump gas.

  • mulvaney44394

    George from Denver
    Great article, as usual!
    On another note-this one positive-I was reading an email from Drayton Bird yesterday. He’s one of David Ogilvy’s Mad Men from the golden age.
    He was talking about how important the little, inconsequential things (like gas cans) can be, and pointed out a TED talk by Rory Sotherland, for which he provided a link, and I went.
    Imagine my shock when in the middle of his talk, a huge sign in red letters flashed on the screen: “Ludwig von Mises Is My Hero!”
    Well, THAT caught my attention!
    He had been talking about how the classical economists didn’t get it-at least that was how I understood him. I see now he was referring to those Keynesian buffoons.
    He went on to talk about praxeology and its relationship to economics. It was a really good talk. This is the first time I’ve run across a reference to von Mises outside of Free Market sites. I surely hope it’s the beginning of a trend.
    Well, thank you for letting me share, and, once again, great read!

  • chris.phillips@jpac.pacom.mil

    Well, what can we expect from a corrupt system that pays farmers not to grow, people not to work, and children not to learn.

    • Rhonda

      You are so right Chris, People have got to wake up sometime and fix this government!

      • http://www.facebook.com/brianbagent M Brian Bagent

        Rhonda, there is no “fixing” government, only paring it down to cover basic functions like the police, the courts, the military, and roads.

        • http://www.facebook.com/afear.thenrut.1 Afear Thenrut

          Even less.

    • Captain_Larry

      The pay children not to learn??? Wow! I wish they had done that when I was a kid – I’d be a rich man today!

      • http://www.facebook.com/afear.thenrut.1 Afear Thenrut

        If you didn’t learn much, you could easily be a cop.

    • just_ja_el

      Anyone remember the movie “Brazil”? Looks like we are now living it.

  • meyer87970

    I go to household auctions. I have picked up several perfectly good old cans that really work.

    • altaylor

      I use two plastic ones I inherited from my father in law after he died in 1989. They’re old, but I’m never throwing them away now.

  • iceberg

    “Lawmakers have to be hacked”

    Freudian slip?

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  • Niel Storts

    You referring to the old metal gas cans that everyone used to own, prior to 1990? That was when our protectors mandated new additive to gasoline that melted the seams. We had to junk those and replace them with worthless plastic containers.
    Of course the cost for every gas station forced to dig up, and replace, their storage tanks was a bit more.

    • Mike Matalucci

      There’s at least a half dozen abandoned gas stations in my town because of that. And even if you want to buy the property and use it for something else, you still have to dig up the old tanks. Just in case they are leaking after 10 years of not being used.

      • boxty

        Yeah, that was California. Govt mandated MTBE in the gas to save the environment which required all gas stations to put in new storage tanks. Few years later MTBE was found to be worse for the environment. All that money wasted and I bet no govt bureaucrat ever lost his job.

        • http://www.facebook.com/stuart.tulloss Stuart Tulloss

          A few years ago 60 Minutes advertized this problem as something CONGRESS mandated (not pictures, just voice over) that made the environment worse. During the show, all they talked about (and played video of) was George Bush SR. – congress was in Democrat party hands back then, so they couldn’t follow through on blaming congress. MTBE was water soluble, so it moved throught the ground faster than gasoline (and you could smell gasoline in the water long before it was harmful). You may have ethanol and other trace additives in your wells now, but the powers that be are less worried about that.

  • Michael

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