Posted on 11/09/2010 4:15:40 PM PST by Eepsy
For the second time in a week, local gasoline prices have increased - this time to more than $3 a gallon, a price the local area hasn't seen since the fall of 2008.
And gas prices across the country could rise by another 25 cents in the near future if a proposed federal fuel tax is enacted.
"I wasn't very happy," Domino's Pizza driver Mary Wise said of the weekend price hike.
Wise uses her personal vehicle to deliver for Domino's on Second Street in Marietta.
"I probably spend around $10 to $15 a day on gas, but I live in Lowell and have to travel back and forth," she said.
The local price of regular, unleaded gasoline jumped from around $2.71 to $2.95 a gallon between Tuesday and Wednesday last week. After settling a bit lower, the cost jumped again over the weekend to $3.09 per gallon at many area stations. By Monday afternoon, prices at some stations had edged back to $2.99 or less.
Domino's manager Malcolm Henry noted drivers are paid a mileage reimbursement, but it's hard to keep up when gas prices climb so quickly.
"I'd like to see a cap placed on gasoline prices," he said. "About 75 percent of our business is delivery right now."
Henry said the fuel price does not affect what consumers pay for pizza, although there is a $2 fee added for local deliveries.
Ron Clatterbuck drives a cab for Ohio Valley Cab Service on Lancaster Street in Marietta.
"I don't think there's much we can do about the gas prices, but they'll probably come back down," he said. "Our fares are not going up, so we'll just have to take it for now."
One reason for the higher cost is a hike in the price per barrel of crude oil, according to Bevi Powell, communications director with AAA's East Central office in Pittsburgh.
"Oil was selling for around $75 a barrel over the summer, but now it's $86 a barrel," she said. "We show the average price in Marietta (on Monday) is around $3 a gallon. Last week the average there was $2.76 per gallon, and last year at this time the price was $2.68.
"The last time gasoline cost this much was in 2008," Powell added. "The highest average there was $4.07 a gallon in July 2008, but oil was selling for more than $150 a barrel and demand was high then."
The fuel price also dropped dramatically later in 2008, to $1.66 a gallon in December.
Powell said the recent increase in gasoline prices is not due to supply and demand because there's plenty of fuel.
"Now the price is following the economy," she explained. "There's speculation that the national economy is improving, so the price is going up. If the news was negative, the price would go down."
In addition, Powell said the U.S. dollar is weakening against foreign currencies which attracts foreign investors and tends to drive fuel prices upward.
"The nation's refineries are also shutting down for routine maintenance this time of year," she said. "We're seeing fuel prices going up all over the country. The average cost per gallon is $2.95 in Ohio and Virginia, and around $2.88 in Pennsylvania, according to the latest figures."
Powell noted that Pennsylvania often lags the rest of the nation when fuel prices change.
The per gallon price of gasoline could climb another 25 cents if the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform acts on recommendations made Friday by U.S. Sens. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, and Tom Carper, D-Delaware.
In a letter to the commission's co-chairmen Friday, Voinovich and Carper urged an increase of 1 cent per month for 25 months in a three-year period to fund transportation projects and help pay down the national debt.
"This proposal will fix the transportation program's major fiscal challenges. It will remove the approaching need for further general fund transfers to the Highway Trust Fund, will provide additional deficit reduction, will supply essential investment for transportation infrastructure, and will create more than 750,000 jobs," the letter to the commission says.
The letter notes that 1993 marks the last time the federal gas tax was increased, by 4.3 cents, to 18.4 cents per gallon.
Voinovich and Carper say they're encouraging the fuel tax increase based on requests from more than 30 public and private stakeholders who say the additional tax is needed to improve transportation infrastructure.
But some area residents feel this may not be the best time for the senators to make their recommendation.
"I can't understand why we've had this big jump in gas prices; it does affect our business," said Kenneth Dolbow, a delivery driver for Dudley's Florist in the Lafayette Center plaza on Pike Street.
"I fill up our van twice a week with about 27 gallons," he said. "Our delivery fee has not increased, although it could go up if the gas prices stay up for an extended period."
Dolbow said he found it interesting that the senators waited until after last week's mid-term election to suggest a tax increase.
Powell said it's possible that the fuel price will continue to hover around the $3 mark through the upcoming holidays.
With friends like these, who needs enemas....
I wish I was only paying 3.00 per gal. $3.29 for premium in LA county.
Keep killing the Dollar Ben. If I could buy my own debt I’d probably do it. If it was destroying a Nation I might not.
Para what I heard on cavuto today. $110 A gallon after 1st of year.
Well it seems to me our nation was doing fairly well in 1992. Then our illustrious leaders decided China needed an IV push of American know how and money.
18 years later, how is that working out for us. The dollar is laying on the floor in the throws of death, and China today is eating our lunch.
So gas is going up. So is everything else folks. This ‘peace’ and prosperity has been brought to you by Leftists and RINOs.
You haven’t seen anything yet.
Anybody remember the 70s?
Richard Fisher, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, whose district includes Houston, said he could envision this second round of Fed purchases leading to a weaker dollar, “super ordinary inflation,” financial speculation and accelerating the transfer of wealth to the rich “from the “poor and the worker and the saver.”
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/7285743.html
Oh that’s what he must mean by “super ordinary inflation”
Shades of Richard Nixon!
I posted #9 before I saw your comment.
You should all feel glad that the price of gasoline is going up. After all, Obama has told us that if gas prices increase we will have more in our pockets since we will buy less gas.
$2.599 here in eastern Aiken County, SC. Western side of the county near Augusta, GA, $2.679
SC has one of the lowest tax rates on gas. And I’m thankful.
There. Fixed it for him. I knew how to do that because I did exactly that every other day in the "energy crisis" of the 1970's. Then Reagan got elected, the "cap on gasoline prices" went away, the lines went away, and then we found out that the "cap" had in fact been a "floor," because prices went down after the "cap" was removed. |
And yet . . . natural gas is very very cheap. We have an abundance of it. We should be converting over to LNG instead of the ethanol scam.
The falling dollars means higher gas prices..OBAMA will blame it on greedy oil companies
Salaries/salt money are not keeping up with inflation so what happens?
No LNG takes massive infrastructure changes we should be building Natural gas to liquid and coal to liquid plants like our nation depended on them because it does. A price floor of ~55 bbl for imported oil would eliminate the fiscal risk of OPEC dumping oil on the world market to plunge the price below what is needed to make a reasonable ROI on GTL and CTL. 55 a barrel is right for both technologies ask the South Africans for help they have been doing CTL for decades. Tell the Greens to piss up wind about the CO2 and lets use all the coal and NG we have been so blessed with.
You can only buy gas on the second and fourth Tuesday of every month.
Funnily enough, those are the only times I can afford to fill my tank....
I paid $2.79 for premium in Houston this morning. Of course, we do have 1/3 of the nation's refineries within 40 miles, and a very active oil business.
LA and California used to be pretty big players in oil and refining.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
"I'd like for our drivers to have to spend an hour-and-a-half every other day waiting in lines as gas stations."