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Gas Prices in Waterloo, Iowa, Area Likely to Rise

Posted on: Wednesday, 6 July 2005, 00:00 CDT

Jul. 1--WATERLOO -- If you cringe at the price of gasoline -- Heather Berst does, every time she puts gas in her car -- then think about this:

High as the prices at the pumps in the Cedar Valley are, they could be higher and probably will be.

The average price of regular unleaded gasoline in Waterloo-Cedar Falls was $2.154 a gallon Thursday, according to AAA. That's the highest price among Iowa's metro markets, if just by fractions of a penny.

Drivers like Berst say that's too high. But it's not high enough for gas station owners, who are selling fuel for below cost just to stay competitive, said Jim Lind, owner of Jim Lind BP Service Station on Ridgeway Ave.

"The retail (price) definitely needs to be higher ... We're below cost at this point right now. You can only do that for so long," Lind said.

"My hope or hunch, as a retailer, is that the retail price can raise here very soon. ... I may have to, in time, regardless of what competition does."

That is exactly what a lot of drivers don't want to hear.

"Gas is one of those things where, every time I have to go get it, I just cringe," Berst, 34, of Waterloo, said.

Chad Weyland, 28, of Gilbertville, drives a lot for work and spends about $50 a month on gas. It costs him $35 to fill up the tank on his Chevy S-10 -- a one-time bill he has a hard time swallowing.

Consequently, Weyland puts gas in his truck $5 or $10 at a time, "just trying to delay the inevitable, I guess." Wednesday, he put in 3.814 gallons of unleaded-plus and spent $8.01 at a Kwik Star so he could use the rest of a gas card.

Lind said $2 a gallon and above for gas seems to cross a psychological boundary for many drivers, where they start to make little changes in their driving habits.

"I think people are being more cognizant of what I call a wasted trip," Lind said. "I think they're trying to coordinate their trips, maybe go to the grocery store less often ... We're seeing people being more aware of the air pressure in their tires because that has such an effect on fuel economy ... But I wouldn't say people have gone in a shutdown mode."

Bob Hansen, 60, of Cedar Falls, has cut back on travel because of gas prices.

"I used to go to the races a lot. We kind of cut back on going to the races," Hansen said. "I even try not to run my air conditioner, to save a little."

Berst said she can't change her daily driving habits. She still has to go to work, take her kids to day care and take them to various appointments or activities. But the prices do make her take a harder look at non-essential travel.

"It's getting to the point where you don't want to go anywhere with your family," Berst said. "I'm looking at going on summer vacation with my kids, and it's getting to the point where I'm looking at it to see if it's worth it."

Two factors drive the price of gasoline, said Zeta Rosenberg, the vice president of the fuels group at ICF Consulting. One is the price of crude oil, which sold for a record high of $60 a barrel in recent days.

The other is the cost of refining and distributing the oil as gasoline, and the taxes on it.

An unstable combination of demand and geopolitics determines the price of crude oil, Rosenberg said. Higher demand worldwide means higher prices. Worries of political turmoil possibly disrupting some of the already tight supply makes the market even more volatile.

Rosenberg said she expects gas prices to go up through the summer, then drop some in the fall -- mostly because that's the usual cycle.

In terms of price, she said the Midwest average of $2.20 a gallon isn't that bad. In Europe, gas costs upward of $4 or $5 a gallon.

"When you think about it, prices were pretty low for about 20 years or so," Rosenberg said. "They've only really started climbing steadily the last five years or so."

For as much driving as Ed Statton does, the price of gas doesn't bother him. Least of all, the price of gas in the Cedar Valley ($2.089 for super unleaded at the Petro -- Provisions in Cedar Falls where he gassed up his SUV Wednesday).

"This is a pretty decent price," Statton, 75, of Belvidere, Ill., said.

"Out West, we have paid $2.40" per gallon.

Statton said he drives back and forth between homes in Belvidere and Cedar Rapids and Arizona. He doesn't worry what will happen to gasoline prices --- they go up, they come down, they go back up again.

"And sometimes I wonder, aren't we really kidding ourselves about gasoline prices in regards to inflation?" Statton said. "I think we're probably getting a darn good deal."

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To see more of the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.wcfcourier.com.

Copyright (c) 2005, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, Iowa

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Source: Waterloo Courier

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