The LUST fee is a small charge on each gallon of fuel that pays to clean up leaking underground storage tanks. The letters stand for leaking underground storage tank.
Underground fuel tanks can leak, and a leak can poison soil and groundwater. Cleaning up an old or abandoned site is expensive, often more than the responsible party can cover. The LUST fee spreads that cost across the whole industry by adding a fraction of a cent to each gallon, building a fund to pay for cleanups.
It is a separate line from the main fuel taxes, charged at both the federal level and in many states. The amount per gallon is tiny, but across the huge volume of fuel a jobber moves, it adds up to a real number that has to be collected, tracked, and passed along correctly.
For an operator it is one more environmental charge to handle right. It rides on the same loads as the excise tax, shows up on the paperwork, and has to land on the invoice and the tax return like the rest. Getting it right is part of keeping the whole tax trail clean.
In useOn every load the office carries the LUST fee as its own line, tiny per gallon but real across the year, and reports it alongside the main fuel tax.
Where the word comes from
LUST stands for leaking underground storage tank, the cleanup program the fee funds. The trade reads the letters as a word.
See also Underground storage tank (UST), Motor fuel excise tax