Area gas price hits record

March 16, 2000

BY ROBERT C. HERGUTH TRANSPORTATION REPORTER

Gasoline pump prices continued their meteoric rise this month, breaking local and national records as they inched closer to the $2-a-gallon mark.

Cook County recorded the largest single-month price increase since record-keeping began in the 1970s.

The average gallon of self-serve unleaded regular jumped 18.9 cents from February to March, while mid-grade increased 23.6 cents and premium shot up 20.5 cents, according to a AAA-Chicago Motor Club "fuel gauge" survey released Wednesday.

The national average for self-serve unleaded regular is $1.54, about 15 cents more than the previous record set in April 1981, according to AAA. Adjusted for inflation, however, gas is cheap. If gas prices had risen as fast as other prices since 1981, a gallon would now be about $2.58.

The last time gasoline prices rose nearly so sharply was in 1999, when a gallon of self-serve unleaded regular in Cook County jumped 18.7 cents, from $1.061 to $1.248, between March and April. During the same period, mid-grade increased 20.7 cents and premium jumped 17.4 cents.

That was around the time the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries cut crude oil production, a major factor in current skyrocketing prices. The global oil cartel will meet March 27 to discuss increasing production. But even if more oil is churned out, gasoline prices are expected to keep climbing in the short term and, some believe, top $2.

Currently, the average gallon price for self-serve unleaded in Cook County is $1.66--60 cents higher than the same time last year. The old record of $1.51 was set in December 1990.

The average cost of a gallon of self-serve unleaded regular elsewhere in Illinois is $1.59, beating the previous record of $1.42 set last month.

"It's not good for anybody; it's not good for the consumer, it's not good for us because the margin has shrunk," said Bill Fleischli, executive vice president of the Illinois Petroleum Marketers Association-Illinois Association of Convenience Stores. "All indications are this isn't going to stop--it's going to be catastrophic."

Since prices started soaring in the last few weeks, the number of "drive-offs" has increased at many gas stations, he said. Some members of his group have asked him to draft legislation that would create tougher penalties for people who gas up and drive away without paying, he said.

Raleigh Kean, whose family owns a chain of 11 gas stations on the South Side and in the south suburbs, said he has been hearing complaints from motorists about the prices. "I tell people we're not making any more than when it was 45 cents a gallon cheaper," he said. "Some people don't want to believe that."

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-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), March 16, 2000