Drop at the Pump
Motorists see gas prices dipping below $3 markBy SHELLEY HANSON
Article Photos
Fact Box
SAME TIME LAST YEAR
= According to AAA, gasoline prices are still higher that at this time last year. On Oct. 10, 2007, the average price for a gallon of regular gas was $2.89 in the Wheeling area and $2.81 in the Steubenville area.
= The highest average price for gasoline recorded in Wheeling was $4.15 on July 16. In Steubenville, an average of $4.10 was recorded on the same day.
WHEELING - Local motorists got some gas price relief Friday, with the cost at Bellaire pumps falling below $3 a gallon.
In Bellaire, at least three stations were offering a gallon of regular unleaded at $2.99, while in Bridgeport most stations' posted price for regular was $3.19 a gallon. The Wheeling Island Exxon was charging $3.29 per regular gallon.
Motorists filling up at the Sunoco station on 29th Street in Wheeling were paying $3.19 a gallon for regular - a price Roger Cumberledge said he could live with. This past summer prices reached $4 a gallon in some regions, but Cumberledge said he just learned to adjust his spending.
"It's not too bad," said Cumberledge of the current prices. "You get by."
He noted lower prices still would be ideal.
"Let them keep falling," Cumberledge said.
Valley Grove resident Bob Whitehouse also was purchasing fuel at the 29th Street Sunoco. He said he was happy the prices were decreasing.
"I think it's going to last. ... I hope it doesn't get like it was before," Whitehouse said, noting he had cut back on driving trips.
He added increasing use of alternative fuels like coal and electric should help decrease the cost of gasoline.
Also at the 29th Street Sunoco was cab driver Wally Bentz of Wheeling, who was wishing for the prices of yesteryear.
"They couldn't be better," Bentz said in an apparent joking manner. "It would be nice if it was 15 cents a gallon, like when I was a kid in the '50s. It was 35 cents when I got out of the service in 1968."
But as prices fall, will Americans return to their heedless, gas-guzzling ways?
Experts say no because most drivers assume the dip in prices will be short-lived, and motorists have adjusted their habits accordingly.
"We've been through almost eight years of continuously rising gasoline prices," AAA spokesman Geoff Sundstrom said. "Any notion that this is a temporary thing has pretty well been erased."
New technologies are emerging fast, with electric cars expected to hit the market in a couple years. But the question is no longer when gas prices will fall; instead, people wonder when will the next spike come?
"Everywhere you go, be it the store, the diner, whatever, you hear people talking about their gas costs and how they need to cut back," said David Robinson, 67, while a friend filled up in Lakewood, N.J. "You still hear it, even though gas keeps dropping."
Even automakers that have long relied on big trucks for profits are moving in a new direction.
Ford Motor Co. is changing from a truck to a car company in North America. General Motors Corp. is closing four factories that make pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles. It will also open a new plant to make four-cylinder engines for the Chevrolet Volt electric car and Chevrolet Cruze compact.
The shift in consumer behavior was noted by AAA in December, when vehicle miles traveled began to slip. Regular gasoline had just risen above $3 a gallon during a month when gas prices usually fall.
By July, regular unleaded gasoline set a record national average of $4.11 a gallon.
The slackening demand for fuel is backed up by industry analysts, who say there has not been such a drastic shift in driving behavior in decades. Demand for gasoline dropped 6 percent over a couple months.
"For most of this decade, we've seen uncertainty manifest itself in the oil markets in terms of supply," said Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service in Wall, N.J. "This is probably the most depressive period" consumers have seen in a generation.
Gas prices fell again Friday to a national average of $3.35.
Prices dipped below $3 a gallon on average in Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma.
If crude keeps falling, the rest of country should see gasoline selling for less than $3 in the next few weeks or sooner, experts say.
In the Denver suburb of Wheat Ridge, Clarke Soule paid $3.31 a gallon to fill his Lincoln Navigator. The self-described ultra-conservative blames the high prices on drilling bans on the outer continental shelf and in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
"I worked 47 years for AT&T, and when I want to buy something, I buy it," said Soule, 65.
For many Americans, the big car is too ingrained as a way of life to let go, said Kit Yarrow, a Golden Gate University psychologist who researches the effects of oil prices on consumer behavior.
"Driving is just so central to their lives, their feelings of freedom and so on, that they're to going to do what they're going to do," she said.
But for most other drivers, that way of thinking has been abandoned.
"People kind of understand now what their foot on the pedal means in terms of money," she said.
Bob Gomez, a state employee in Colorado, has begun to car pool.
In Los Angeles, artist Shahla Kareen gave up her 2007 BMW 530i sedan in July for a 1978 Mercedes fueled with waste vegetable oil. She pays $1 a gallon.
"I would spend $75 to $100 to fill up my tank per week with the BMW," Kareen said. "Now I spend maybe $20 a week."
There have been broad changes across entire industries as well.
Cruise lines have altered routes to save fuel. UPS Inc. and the U.S. Postal Service are turning to alternative-fuel vehicles, and UPS plans to use biodiesel at its Kentucky air hub. Airlines are shifting to more fuel-efficient planes.
Industry analysts say gas could fall as low as $2.50 to $2.75 a gallon, but many see that as a temporary pause before prices rise again.
Analyst Stephen Schork said any return to more liberal use of fuel would occur a long time from now because consumers are already making big-ticket decisions about what cars they will drive.
In September, consumers continued shifting from trucks and SUVs to cars, with car sales representing 52 percent of the market. Sales of Ford's top-selling F-series pickup trucks fell 42 percent.
David Portalatin, an automotive industry analyst for the NPD Group, said research has shown both short-term and long-term behavior changes that will continue for an extended period regardless of the gas price.
"Consumers don't have a lot of faith that the price will come down and will stay there for very long," he said. "Today's consumer is more thoughtful about overall finances."
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formerohvalleyresident
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10-11-08 2:28 PM
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Atoddh, the top oil suppliers to the USA are Canada, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, and Nigeria; only one is OPEC so their power to control prices in the USA is diminishing, although they still influence the world market. EllisW, what a great plan! Too bad it with the scoundrels in government we have, it will never happen. I would add “no oil or gas fired power plants” only clean coal and nuclear! Nuclear waste is only a problem because the “greens” keep holding up Yucca Flats. And if coal were oil, the US has more than the Saudis. Pickens is an investor looking for partners! As an engineer, I have to say the “alternate” energies after 40 years of subsidies produce only a couple of percent of our power and NOTHING in the technology horizon is going to change them quickly. Take away their subsidies and ethanol, wind and solar still cannot come close to competing with PROVEN fossil fuel and nuclear solutions.
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EllisWyatt
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10-11-08 8:09 AM
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If we are saving $2 trillion per year, half could flow to taxpayers. This is an increase of 6.25% in GDP, immediately. Then, we should privitize Social Security and Medicare and get them under control. With the additional $1 trillion per year in savings, we could start to pay down the national debt of $8 trillion. Once that is paid, Social Security and Medicare loom. Fund them with $25 trillion in bonds, to repaid at 5% per year, tax free. With additional tax revenues, increased efficiency and smaller government, we should be able to set aside the $250 billion per year in extra interest payments plus an additional $500 billion in principal savings. As we build on the principal, it will stimulate the economy and earn interest. We can pay off the debt in 30+ years instead of 50. We could shave 10 years off the repayment schedule and save $12.5 trillion in interest plus return $25 trillion to our economy immediately. I am dreaming, of course. This will never happen.
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EllisWyatt
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10-11-08 8:01 AM
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5. Demand $1 trillion in war reparations from Iraq. Take it in oil and natural gas. Set it to X number of barrels or cubic feet to avoid getting less fuel in the event of a price increase. 6. Stop giving our tax dollars to illegal immigrants, directly or indirectly. Instead, demand that Mexico hand over 1 barrell of oil per day for each illegal they dumped here. That is 25 million barrels, more than our current consumption. 7. Now that we are saving that $700 billion per year, think of the good it can do! 8. Go to a flat tax and eliminate the $600 billion we spend on tax compliance each year. 9. Eliminate corporate taxes and capital stock taxes. 10. End the death tax. 11. Allow for 100% deductions of capital investments in the year they are made. 12. Go electronic with health records. Get government out of healthcare. Save $500 + billion per year in red tape. 13. Cut the federal budget by 10%. $2.1 trillion per year savings!
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EllisWyatt
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10-11-08 7:57 AM
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Pickens was a hero of mine growing up. That said, you really need to look into his proposal. Most coal fired power plants use natural gas for a backup. We do not produce all the natural gas we consume. Pickens is invested in wind farms, etc and wants government money to flow into his coffers. The so-called $700 billion we send overseas is not sent into oblivion; we TRADE it for oil. If we increase our natural gas consumption by 20% then we will go from paying Saudi Arabia, Norway and Canada for oil to paying Russia, Iran, Iraq and Quatar for Natural Gas. Here is MY plan: 1. Drop all government mandates requiring twice per year fuel blend changes and 24 different types of fuel in the US. One oil, one gas, lower price. 2. Build new refineries. 3. Drill offshore, every chance we get. 4. Allow for a tax credit of $2,000 per year for commuters (make it a credit in conjunction with the standard deduction). continued..
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atoddh
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10-11-08 2:47 AM
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The Arabs will now drop production to curtail supply and raise the prices.Pickens CNG is a good idea.
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Honesty
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10-11-08 2:25 AM
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The prices are only coming down until after the elections. Vote everyone out of office and lets enforce our own term limits. Forget party lines!
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