Published: March 11, 2008 11:41 pm         

Drivers cringe as gas prices surge

Oil costs at stock market high, sending gas to $3.45 a gallon

Bill Flack plans to retire from Chrysler in a couple of months.

Tuesday’s nearly 25-cent per gallon jump in gasoline prices to the $3.45 range aren’t helping his budget one bit.

“I’ve already had to modify my budget for gasoline,” the Galveston man said.

Flack was filling his Chrysler Voyager minivan at the Kroger fuel station at Northwest Plaza, where the gas prices were still at $3.29.

“I left Chrysler and the first thing I saw was gas at $3.45 a gallon, so I swung through here,” he said. “It’s my last chance for cheaper gas. Otherwise, I’d probably run ’til the tank was dry and hope the price goes down.”

On Tuesday, light sweet crude for April delivery surged to a trading record of $109.72 on the New York Mercantile Exchange before retreating after the Energy Department and International Energy Agency cut crude consumption forecasts for this year.

Futures settled 85 cents higher at $108.75 a barrel, a new record.

The rising price of oil resulted in a record national average of $3.23 a gallon Tuesday, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service.

Late in the afternoon, Kokomo gas stations such as Kroger, Swifty and Sam’s Club were still around $3.25 a gallon and pumps were filled with drivers filling up vehicles before those prices rose. Stations where prices had already risen were nearly empty.

Kokomo’s Larry Grant was expecting the worst while sitting in his Chevrolet Silverado at Kroger.

“I was out earlier, and it was $3.25 here. It’s gone up 4 cents already. All the rest are $3.43, 45 or 46. I need gas,” he said. “If I fill up, it would be $70 or $80. I’m only going to put in about $50. I imagine it’s going to keep going up and will be $3.40 before the night is over.”

And, he was right as Kroger’s price was up to $3.45 by 8 p.m.

The rising cost of fuel, he believes, “is going to stop people from traveling a bit.”

It’s already started to change the way Robert Root, of Kokomo, drives.

“I have actually started combining different things I need to do into one trip rather than go home and then go run another place,” he said.

Root admitted rising gas prices may force him to trade his Dodge Ram 1500 4x4 for something more fuel efficient.

“If it keeps going like this, I probably will. I might have to go to a foreign vehicle because they get better mileage,” he said. “I’m a Chrysler retiree and want to stay loyal. But, Chrysler is not doing too good of a job on gas mileage.”

When gas was $3 or less a gallon, it usually cost him $65 to fill his truck. He was pleased to be pulling away for just $66 — with the 10-cent discount Kroger awards for customers who spend $100 on groceries.

At Super Test on South Lafountain, Kevin Rose pulled in to buy gas for his Dodge Charger.

“It’s $3.55,” he said of the 89-octane fuel he must buy for the Charger to perform at its optimum.

“I needed to stop,” said Rose, who works in Kokomo, but lives near Frankfort. Cutting back, he noted, isn’t really an option. “I have to get back and forth to work.”

He believes that prices will come down if environmental regulations are relaxed.

“Environmentalists, every time you try to do something, they yell about it,” he said. “They don’t like nuclear energy. This is what happens when you need to build refineries and can’t.

“We need to quit tree hugging and start drilling holes where the oil is.”

A year ago, rising demand and a string of refinery outages raised concerns about supplies. Now, the record price of crude oil is the culprit, propelling gas higher although supplies are at 15-year highs.

Many analysts expect prices to moderate, while others predict oil could keep rising to $120 a barrel, or higher. And with demand for gas expected to rise as warm weather arrives, analysts say pump prices could spike as high as $3.75 a gallon, regardless of oil prices.

Analysts believe oil’s underlying supply and demand fundamentals do not support such high prices, and argue that crude’s rise in recent months is mostly due to the falling dollar. Crude futures offer a hedge against a falling dollar, and oil futures bought and sold in dollars are more attractive to foreign investors when the dollar is weak.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

     

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