Area Gasoline Prices Take a 30-Cent Jump Friday
Sep. 3–Still smarting from Hurricane Katrina, St. Louis area gasoline prices on Friday leaped 30 cents to $3.29 a gallon and higher for regular unleaded, and some station operators reported brief shortages.
Some Labor Day weekend travelers reconsidered their plans, especially those heading to the East Coast or the South, said Mike Right, spokesman for AAA Missouri. The auto club had forecast an increase of only 1 percent in holiday travel before Katrina hit.
“I can guarantee there are lots of people changing their plans, not just because of the extraordinarily high prices but concerns about being stranded or inconvenienced where they’re going,” Right said.
Melissa Barnes of Gosnell, Ark., fretted over whether to make the drive to St. Louis with her family for a Cardinals game on Monday.
After being reassured that gasoline was available, Barnes, her husband and three children decided to load up their Chevrolet Tahoe and make the trip.
“We will only be paying an extra $20 for a tank of gas than we were before prices spiked at the beginning of the week from around $2.40 a gallon,” she said. “We already had hotel reservations, and it would cost us more to get out of that than to go ahead and come up.”
St. Louis area gas prices shot up to an average of $3.04 for a gallon of regular unleaded early Friday and moved higher in the afternoon because of the volatile pricing, Right said.
Sporadic shortages occurred around the metro area; they usually were resolved within a few hours, station operators said. Among stations affected were those operated by Casey’s General Stores Inc., a nine-state chain of 1,375 stores.
“We are doing the best we can with what we have,” said Terry Handley, Casey’s vice president of store operations.
On Friday, Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt offered specifics about a federal waiver on cleaner-burning fuel requirements.
The nationwide waiver, announced earlier this week by the Environmental Protection Agency, provides a two-week jump on the sale of winter fuel, which tends to be more volatile than the summer blend and thus more susceptible to evaporation. The EPA waiver is aimed at maximizing fuel supplies.
But reformulated gasoline will continue to be sold in St. Louis, where the air quality fails to meet federal standards for ground-level ozone.
Blunt also encouraged Missourians to make “responsible choices” on fuel consumption, including buying fuel only when needed, driving less and coordinating errands.
Many local retailers were selling fuel below their cost, which for gasoline ranged from $3.10 to $3.20 a gallon on Friday, said Jim Forsyth, chief executive of MotoMart in Belleville. Forsyth bought large quantities of fuel earlier in the week when the price spiked dramatically, eliminating the chance of running out for the next 10 days, he said.
The Metropolitan Taxicab Commission responded to the price surge on Friday by agreeing to allow cab companies in St. Louis city, county and at Lambert Field to add $1 a trip to cab rides. As early as Tuesday, the total fuel surcharge would be $2 a trip, said commission Director Michael Tully.
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