HB4690

HB4690 changes how Texas sets motor-fuel quality, testing and measuring-device standards, and writes specific gasoline exceptions into statute. It was signed and took effect June 20, 2025. Earlier violations remain governed by earlier law; a violation counts as earlier if any element occurred before that date.

The Texas Commission of Licensing and Regulation must adopt rules tying fuel-pump specifications and tolerances to the most recently adopted or amended National Institute of Standards and Technology standards when the device is used. Fuel-quality standards must track ASTM International’s latest adopted or amended petroleum standards on the sale date; testing rules must use ASTM’s latest adopted or amended standard on the test date. These are distinct reference dates, not a single permanently fixed edition.

For gasoline and ethanol-blended gasoline, rules must follow the applicable seasonal and regional specifications in ASTM D4814, subject to the act’s exceptions:

• When areas in Texas on opposite sides of 99° west longitude have different seasonal volatility classes, gasoline or ethanol blends qualify under this exception by complying with either area’s class. Volatility concerns how readily fuel turns into vapor.
• Gasoline meeting or exceeding the named AAA, AA or A vapor-pressure and distillation class requirements is treated as conforming to the referenced Driveability Index. This is the law’s specific deeming rule, not a statement that every fuel-quality requirement disappears.
• Blends containing up to 15% ethanol by volume receive a 1.0-pound-per-square-inch vapor-pressure tolerance, except for blends sold or offered for sale May 1 through October 1 in counties subject to low-emissions motor-fuel standards.
• Seasonal vapor-pressure specifications may be extended by up to 15 days to distribute existing stocks. New stocks in a higher-volatility class cannot be sold at retail before that class’s effective date.
• The section’s vapor-to-liquid-ratio specification does not apply to gasoline or gasoline-ethanol blends. The exceptions cannot be construed to interfere with state low-emissions fuel regulations adopted to comply with federal law.

The act replaces former Section 2310.202, which distinguished ASTM standards for non-ethanol fuels from NIST standards for ethanol blends, with the new framework. It also ties stop-sale sampling and handling to the testing-standard section. Existing stop-sale approval, notice and appeal protections are not repealed. This briefing explains the statutory framework; it is not a laboratory certification, a reproduction of ASTM’s technical tables, or permission to use a fuel in a vehicle that cannot accept it.