Gas prices rocket to new heights

www.lumberjackonline.com Terra Cole March 06, 2003 Gas prices have been climbing a mountain-a mountain that has the potential to be as lofty as Mount Humphreys. The U.S. average retail price for regular gasoline rose for the 10th straight week Feb. 20, increasing to the highest price since early June 2001. The 10-week increase was more than 30 cents per gallon. Between Feb. 3 and Feb. 10, the U.S. average retail price for regular gasoline rose by 8 cents per gallon, tying the largest weekly increase, since the Energy Information Administration began surveying in 1990. The retail price is now 54.5 cents per gallon higher than a year ago, according to the Energy Information Administration. According to the Department of Energy, the drastic price increase is due to a decreased supply of petroleum. The Organization for Petroleum Exporting Companies has lowered production, which affects gas, diesel and residential heating prices. Along with OPEC’s lower production, a labor strike decreased Venezuela’s production in early December, which was the fourth-largest exporter of crude oil to the United States in November. Worries over the possible war in Iraq have also sparked lofty oil prices, according to the Department of Energy. Cesar Lizarraga, the owner of Texaco on Milton Avenue for 15 years, has noticed a trend in gas consumption during a war. “To the best of my knowledge, when war breaks out, prices get worse,” Lizarraga said. He remembers gas prices rocketing to $1.99 during the Gulf War, he said. With the anxiety of war, gas prices are not expected to get better, according to the Energy Information Administration. Crude oil inventories in the United States are now at their lowest level since 1975, and the United States has its lowest average inventory of barrels per day since January 2000. Jeff Irwin, the manager of Varsity Gasser on Milton, is not concerned increased prices will hurt his business. “Gas prices could go up $4 and people would still buy it,” he said. Irwin, who once lived in Hawaii where some residents paid more than $2 per gallon, said price does not seem to affect consumption. “It (higher prices) didn’t stop them and isn’t going to stop them,” Irwin said. Fisher said she agrees higher gas prices do not necessarily mean less demand. “The people who can afford it, will,” Fisher said. “They’ll probably continue to fill up their snowmobiles and yachts too. I think as long as there are gas and humans on the planet, we will use (gas) ‘til the last drop is gone, or until we are all dead fighting for it.”