Gas prices soar throughout state

Saturday June 10, 2000

By The Associated Press

At Butch's Corner in Wheeling, the sign changed early Friday morning: Regular unleaded gas increased 2 cents, from $1.659 to $1.679 per gallon.

Most customers, perhaps accustomed to the wild price fluctuations they've experienced this year, said little.

"Everybody's sort of quiet,'' assistant manager Debbie Stephens said. "We have one man who gets super all the time, and he yells a little. ... I just look at them and say, There's nothing we can do about it.'"

Statewide, it's the same story.

Retailers are passing the ever-increasing cost of fuel along to their customers - as much as 20 cents in one week at one Kanawha County station.

Prices at the SuperAmerica in Elkview shot up from $1.49 earlier this week to $1.69 by Thursday. An employee who answered the phone there wouldn't discuss either the pricing or consumer reaction.

"It's been a crazy year for gas prices,'' said Greg Beheler, a spokesman for AAA's Southern West Virginia Auto Club. "The traveler is pretty much taking it on the nose.''

According to the American Automobile Association's fuel gauge report, updated daily, the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded in West Virginia on Friday was $1.54. That's about 3 cents below Friday's national average.

Mid-range unleaded averaged $1.61 per gallon in West Virginia, while premium was selling at an average of $1.69.

Experts say prices are up because of the high cost of crude oil and demand for gasoline at the start of summer driving season. But prices are being sustained by a new federal law requiring some cities with air-pollution problems to sell a reformulated gasoline that is more expensive, less widely available and more time-consuming to produce.

Some businesses are feeling the pinch.

Elizabeth Loy, owner of Matrigail's Flower Boutique in Hedgesville, was forced to charge an extra dollar for delivery last month. She's hoping not to have to do it again.

"If prices go down, we'll put it back,'' she said. The store makes 20 to 30 deliveries a day, all within a 15-mile radius.

So far, Giovanni New York Pizza in Martinsburg has absorbed the additional costs, manager Shawn Carden said.

And so has Airport Limousine Service Inc. of Wheeling, which runs vans and luxury sedans throughout the Northern Panhandle and as far as the Pittsburgh, Columbus and Akron, Ohio, airports.

John Dorsey, operations director, is reluctant to pass his increasing costs on to consumers.

"It's too soon to tell,'' he said. "Gas prices have been too volatile ... all over the map. It may change tomorrow.''

Whether his customers will pay more depends on how long the price increases last, he said.

"You've quoted someone a fare and you can just tell them their bill is so much more,'' he said. "That's bad public relations.''

If high prices remain, Tammy Clay-Wills, owner of Clay Express Inc., a Charleston delivery service, says she may be forced to raise prices when contracts come up for renewal. She maintains a fleet of small cars averaging 24 miles per gallon.

"It kinda of catches you off guard,'' she said.

Beheler, at AAA in Charleston, said gas prices have never varied as much as they have this year.

"It beckons us to think about carpooling,'' he said. "It's certainly made people more aware of what they're spending at the pump.''

Truckers are also paying more, with diesel in West Virginia running about $1.57 Friday, compared to $1.50 nationally.

"I'm certain the prices will eventually show up on the shelf at the store because it's costing truckers more,'' Beheler said. "It has a broad, sweeping effect.''

The state Public Service Commission has an order in effect that allows certain businesses to increase rates to cover fuel costs. The order covers garbage haulers, taxi and bus companies, movers and wrecker companies.

http://www.wvgazette.com/news/Other+News/2000060916/

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), June 10, 2000

Answers

Martin, I don't know your Nationality, If you are in a Country who would like to create a huge scale of paranoia in the U.S., you are on the wrong forum. Maybe, by chance, you are someone looking at all the economics. I have seen the neighbors big Rig, sitting in the yard. more often than not. This economy thing, it has a potential of hitting us all, all Countries. How is your rain fall? I do drive a Cadillac, it is a 1976. My God, Somebody's God, Please Help us All.

-- Economy (is@everything.com), June 10, 2000.