Sticker Shock at the Pump
www.newsday.com Feb 20, 2003 On the Web Weekly Gasoline Prices
Talk About: High Gas Prices Gas prices are nearing the $2 mark in the New York metro area. What are you doing to cope with the high prices? Who or what is to blame? What should we do about a national energy policy? Talk about it now.
The people voted for a bond to help fix the roads in New York. Gov. Cuomo came up with this bond and New Yorkers are still paying 10 cents per gallon to pay off the bond. Everyone forgot about this... Who knows if the bond will ever be paid off. Submitted by: Danism 1:45 PM EST, Feb 21, 2003
Its all about oil, money and war for oil and money for the Politicans & businessmen to fatten their wallets. Submitted by: ed 1:38 PM EST, Feb 21, 2003
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By Zubin Jevleh Staff Writer
February 21, 2003 Richard Huang may have to give up his first love: his car. The 21-year-old Valley Stream resident drives three times a week to Stony Brook University where he studies computer science.
But with higher gas prices, the 80-mile roundtrip journey has become less fulfilling.
"I love driving and listening to my music, but I can't keep paying this much if the prices go any higher,” said Huang, who shelled out $35 to fill his 1997 Lexus LS400 with mid-grade gas at an Amoco gas station in East Meadow Thursday.
With the threat of war against Iraq, low oil supplies, and an ongoing oil strike in Venezuela, gas prices have soared in recent weeks. At some local gas stations, prices for premium have topped $2 a gallon. According to the Long Island Gasoline Retailers Association, self-service regular grade gas has climbed three cents in the past week to average $1.76 on Long Island. (The average for premium is almost 20 cents higher.)
Instead of filling up their tanks, several drivers said they were setting a $20 or $30 limit on gas purchases now. Others are parking SUVs in favor of cars with better gas mileage.
Andrew Lawton, a construction contractor, said he had to reduce how often he drives his 2002 Ford Excursion.
"I was paying close to $60 to fill up, but now I've been taking out my other car more,” said Lawton of Levittown.
Consumers are not the only ones hurting. At the independent Emporium gas station in East Meadow, owner Sardar Liaqat said he had to cut one worker's hours to save money to pay his bills. "The same number of people are coming but they are buying less gas,” said Liaqat. In the past two months, he said, the amount of gallons he had sold had dropped by half.
Despite the wallet-wilting prices, "when compared with the early '80s, present prices are still significantly less,” said Bill Bush, spokesman for the American Petroleum Institute. Adjusted for inflation, the price per gallon for gas in 1981 was $2.70.
Still, Huang, who only works part time, said he had started to think about alternative means of transportation. "I had been fighting it, but I'm going to have to start taking the train,” he said.