Government has regulated the simple gas can into not working, writes Jeffrey Tucker. What will it regulate next? Note that product liability litigation has also had an influence on the design and sale of the cans.
Government has regulated the simple gas can into not working, writes Jeffrey Tucker. What will it regulate next? Note that product liability litigation has also had an influence on the design and sale of the cans.
4 Comments
Free market government work-around. Capitalism at its best.
JEGS Performance Products 80221 Fuel Jug with Spill-Free Fast Flow Nozzle!
I have a stash of gas and diesel cans from before they were required to be engineered to be idiot-proof, and I am never going to get rid of them. The new ones will probably cause even more accidents, because the difficulty in using them will cause the idiots (and maybe even some people who are otherwise sane) to just become more inventive and do things that are much more dangerous to get the fuel out of the cans.
@rxc,
The re-engineering to create spill proof gas cans wasn’t for idiots who couldn’t use a regular gas can for it’s intended purpose (refueling a vehicle or small ice driven device) without spilling. It was for idiots who deliberately slowly poured gas from a gas can on the ground while walking/running, had a friend light the trail of gas on fire then either couldn’t run fast enough to stay ahead of the fire before the gas ran out or ran in a circle and got them selves trapped in a ring of fire while holding an open gas can.
There are thousands of videos of idiots doing this on YouTube.
Unfortunately the re-engineering was done to address two “problems “. One was smog caused by release of gasoline vapor. This came from California, of course, and required cans with automatic closures, which led to the elimination of vents and those hideous spouts you have to push on to open the flow path. The other driver was the idiots who did creative things like pouring gas into a stove. One of my former bosses did something like this.
Read all the reviews for the great idea linked by the first comment. The nozzle doesn’t fit modern car fillers so it is useless for cars. It is also a pain for filling small tanks. People will have to do all sorts of crazy things to make it useful and they will get hurt in the process.
Wretched progressive re-engineering.