02/20/2026
From Texas Department of Licensing & Regulation (1/19/2026) -- Fuel Metering and Quality: New Laws Affect Stations
The 89th Texas Legislature passed new laws that will affect motor fuel stations.
SB 2371 and SB 1499 provide clear guidelines and new responsibilities for state agencies and Texas businesses to uniformly combat skimmers, fuel theft, and criminals.
The Texas Financial Crimes Intelligence Center (FCIC) was given expanded authority to assist in crimes involving fuel theft, skimmers, virtual currency, and ATM fraud involving any merchant’s electronic terminal in Texas. Electronic terminals include point of sale, virtual currency kiosk, ATM, or other terminals that initiate an electronic funds transfer.
SB 2371 enhances merchant, service technician, and service company engagement to report skimmers found on any electronic terminal. When a station, technician or other employee finds a skimmer, they must report it to the FCIC at https://fcic.texas.gov/merchants.html. Further instructions are provided on the site.
SB 2371 also created civil penalties and criminal offenses for violating the provisions of this law. For more details visit, https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/BC/htm/BC.607A.htm.
HB 4690 specifies motor fuel quality standards and limited exceptions to those standards for consumer protection and motor fuel uniformity across the state. With notable exceptions, TDLR is required to have motor fuel quality standards as the most recently adopted ASTM International standards.
Gasoline or gasoline blended with ethanol that is sold during periods of the year when the areas on either side of the 99o 00’ west longitude line have different volatility classes are allowed to be sold in either area as long as the fuel complies with the most current ASTM D4814 specifications. This situation currently only occurs in March, April, November, and December because of the transition between winter and summer gasoline formulations. In practice this exception will allow fuel stations near the 99o 00 west longitude line to source gasoline during these months from suppliers on either side of this longitude.
Another notable exception to ASTM International fuel standards only involves the sale of gasoline that does not contain ethanol, sometimes called ethanol-free gasoline or E0 gasoline. If a gasoline that does not contain ethanol meets or exceeds the v***r pressure and distillation class AAA, AA, or A specifications of ASTM International D4814 then the Drivability Index (DI) specification is satisfied. This alleviates the need for gasoline that does not contain ethanol to meet the DI specifications during the times of the year when gasoline volatility class AAA, AA, and A are required to be sold.
