In the early 1970’s I was the principal consumer advocate for octane posting on gasoline pumps. Advocacy resulted in enactment of Title II – Octane Disclosure – of the Petroleum Marketing Practices Act (P.L. 95-297) requiring the posting of gasoline octane quality ratings on all gasoline pumps to reduce consumer octane overbuying. Octane overbuying in the 1970s was resulting, each day, in an economic waste of three million consumer dollars, energy waste of one million gallons of gasoline, and air pollution emissions of 400,000 pounds of lead. See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/about-louis.php
Today we read in the NY Times overbuying is still a problem in the U.S.A.“According to a report this week from AAA, 16.5 million drivers used premium fuel on average at least once a month over the last year, although their cars required only regular grade gasoline, accomplishing nothing positive and wasting $2.1 billion.” See http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/23/automobiles/dont-waste-money-on-premium-gas-if-your-car-is-made-for-regular.html?hpw&rref=automobiles&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well
Nice to see AAA warning Americans about overbuying as we did in the 1970’s when we did not have octane ratings on the pumps. Americans still need to stop overbuying. But now all gasoline is lead free – and importantly blood lead levels in children are now much lower – though still not low enough from other sources of lead. Seehttps://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/data/Chart_Website_StateConfirmedByYear_1997_2015.pdf
