Gas Prices Hit $3 a Gallon in St. Louis Metro Area
Sep. 1–Gasoline spiked to a record $3 a gallon and more around the area on Wednesday, sparking a protest in St. Louis and a prediction that it could soar to $4 a gallon.
On Wednesday morning, the average price for self-serve regular unleaded rose 30 cents a gallon to $2.72. By early afternoon, it had jumped to $3 or more at several stations, said Mike Right, spokesman for AAA Missouri.
The rapid run-up was blamed on the shutdowns of ports near New Orleans, eight Gulf Coast refineries and many offshore oil rigs because of Hurricane Katrina.
“Things are bad,” Right said. “You are talking about eating significantly into families’ budgets” as well as those of others who must buy fuel. “The more you eat into these budgets, the less people have to spend,” he said. “It’s going to have a dramatic drag on the U.S. economy.”
Right declined to predict future prices but said he expected the spike to be temporary. In contrast, William Shireman, an executive at the 50-station chain Gas City Ltd. of Frankfort, Ill., predicted that prices would rise to more than $4 a gallon by the end of next week.
Meanwhile, the MotoMart chain in Belleville was paying $3.28 a gallon on the wholesale spot market, leading to a loss of nearly 30 cents on each gallon it sold at the pump, said Jim Forsyth, chief executive.
In trading Wednesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, wholesale gasoline for September delivery rose 14 cents, or 5.7 percent, to close at $2.62 a gallon, a record.
A year ago, the wholesale price in New York was $1.13 a gallon, while the retail price on the Missouri side of the river was about $1.65 — described as a bargain at the time. Motorists buying at the pump typically must pay at least 60 cents a gallon more than the wholesale cost of the gasoline.
“It’s just a big mess,” Forsyth said, adding that the chain would raise pump prices today to $3.70 a gallon in Wisconsin. “When people accuse you of gouging, I don’t blame them, but they need to be educated about it,” he said. “It’s just one of those odd, weird, unexpected catastrophes.”
Meanwhile, several hundred members of the United Auto Workers protested outside the Thomas F. Eagleton U.S. Courthouse downtown.
Most carried posters criticizing President George W. Bush and accusing Missouri Sen. Jim Talent and other Republicans of contributing to the skyrocketing gas prices.
Amid protest signs calling Bush the “best president the oil companies ever had,” Rep. William Lacy Clay Jr., D-St. Louis, told the demonstrators, “He’s going to take care of those guys who took care of his election.”
The Rev. B.T. Rice called for a series of protests against rising fuel prices, plans to privatize Social Security and state Medicaid cuts.
Many motorists voiced their displeasure. “It is a scam,” said Tom Balch, 74, of Jennings as he pumped $12 of gas into his 1990 Lincoln Town Car at the Phillips 66 station on St. Charles Rock Road in Bridgeton. “The oil companies are ripping the people off, and there is nothing we can do.”
Gabe Wilson, a dialysis nurse who drives more than an hour to work in St. Louis from Mount Vernon, Ill., said she is getting close to changing her behavior. She was paying $2.99 a gallon at the Shell station on Hampton Avenue in St. Louis. She fills up daily and spends $100 a week on gas.
“I don’t think it’s the Iraq war or the hurricane,” she said. “It’s the American businessmen; they are using this as an excuse.”
Ten MotoMart stations ran out of gasoline on Monday because of dwindling supplies, Forsyth said. Right predicted that some stations may run out of fuel temporarily as distributors ration supplies.
At the Booksource in St. Louis, Chief Executive Sandy Jaffe began handing out $10 gas cards last week to the schoolbook distributor’s 175 hourly employees. They’ll receive the cards every other week until the end of the year, or until gas drops to $2.25 a gallon.
News services and Norm Parish and Jo Mannies of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.
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