Have there been any attempts to get the US government to revert to pre-2007 requirements for gas cans?

Question

In 2007, the EPA mandated that all gas cans made from 2009 onward conform to a set of regulations that, combined with the requirements of the Children's Gasoline Burn Prevention Act of 2008, resulted in a redesign of portable fuel containers which made them more difficult to use.

Specifically, gas cans must now:

• Use spouts that close automatically, requiring constant force to keep them open
• Use a child-resistant opening mechanism on all openings
• Leak no more than 0.3g per gallon per day of hydrocarbon emissions

Effectively, this creates several problems:

• The user must apply constant force on the spout opening mechanism while pouring, which makes holding the container while pouring more difficult than a regular container, especially with larger, heavier containers.
• The user must operate the child-resistant mechanism before pouring, which makes maintaining force on the opening mechanism more difficult.
• There is no practical way to include a vent; while not explicitly banned by the EPA regulations or the Children's Gasoline Burn Prevention act, any other opening would require its own child-resistant, automatically-closing cover that would have to be operated simultaneously with the main spout.

There is no shortage of articles and videos detailing the issues with the new design.

Have there been any organized attempts, e.g. petitions or legislation introduced, to get the government to reverse these regulations?

Answer 1

Have there been any organized attempts, e.g. petitions or legislation introduced, to get the EPA to reverse this regulation?

There are active petitions:

• Get Rid of the Ridiculous Gas Can Law at change.org with 215 of 500 signatures.
• Repeal of the EPA regulations mandating unwanted portable gas container nozzles at petitions.whitehouse.gov with 69 of 100000 signatures.
• EPA, Give Us Back Our Gas Cans! at ipetitions.com with 26 of 100000 signatures.

I could find no Federal legislation attempting to overturn the regulation.

There is activity in Michigan concerning the regulation.

Michigan House: Resolution encourages Congress to repeal EPA standards for design, April 26, 2017.

State Rep. Brett Roberts spoke before the [Michigan] House Natural Resources Committee today in support of a resolution he introduced to stop the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from overregulating the design of portable gas cans.

The Natural Resources Committee overwhelmingly approved the resolution. It now moves to the full House for consideration.

Michigan House: Johnson bill to exempt Michigan-made gas cans from federal regulation receives hearing, September 16, 2019.

State Rep. Steve Johnson recently testified before the House Commerce Committee in support of House Bill 4717, which allows gas cans made, sold and used in Michigan to not conform to federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations.