Gas Can Freedom Act of 2025: Safety Rules for Gas Cans Repealed

The "Gas Can Freedom Act of 2025" completely wipes out the Portable Fuel Container Safety Act of 2020 and the Children’s Gasoline Burn Prevention Act. This means that those safety features you see on gas cans, like the flame arrestors and child-proof caps? Gone. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is also barred from bringing them back or creating any similar rules in the future.

Back to Basics

This bill is all about deregulation. It eliminates existing safety standards for portable fuel containers. Specifically, it removes the requirement for flame mitigation devices, designed to prevent explosions, and child-resistant closures, meant to keep kids from accidentally opening gas cans. The Act rolls back federal safety regulations to a pre-2020 state, explicitly prohibiting the CPSC from stepping in to regulate these safety features.

Real-World Rollback

Imagine you're filling up your lawnmower, and a stray spark ignites the gasoline vapor. Without a flame mitigation device, that could lead to a much larger fire or explosion. Or, picture a toddler getting their hands on a gas can without a child-resistant cap – that’s a recipe for accidental poisoning or burns. These are the kinds of scenarios the repealed regulations were designed to prevent. Section 2 of the bill is where all the action is, repealing those safety laws and tying the CPSC's hands.

The Bigger Picture

This move fits into a broader pattern of deregulation, where the focus is on reducing business costs and government oversight. While some might argue that the old rules were burdensome, the flip side is that safety could be compromised. There's a valid concern that removing these protections will lead to more accidents. It also clashes with the whole purpose of the CPSC, which is to protect the public from unreasonable risks of injury or death associated with consumer products. It will be interesting to see if cheaper, less safe cans start flooding the market.