Kitsap Gas Price Bubbles Above $3 Wednesday
April 7th, 2010 by Rachel PritchettSo says the AAA this morning for a gallon of unleaded. That’s up from $2.95 a month ago and $2.28 a year ago. Look for my story soon. Here’s some context. Rachel Pritchett
The Associated Press
Gasoline and oil prices climbed to 18-month highs Monday as a batch
of new economic reports provided more signs that the economy is
back on steady footing and demand for crude will follow.
The worry now among some analysts is whether gasoline pump prices
are starting to approach a level that could choke off the
recovery.
Benchmark crude for May delivery rose $1.75 to settle at $86.62 a
barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Thursday, the
contract climbed $1.11 to settle at $84.87 following a gain of
$1.39 on Wednesday.
Global oil trading was closed for the Good Friday holiday.
On Monday, reports on pending home sales and the service sector
were better than expected. On Friday, the Labor Department said
employers added 162,000 jobs in March, the largest job gain in
three years.
Oil, which has been trading between $75 and $85 a barrel for
months, now appears to be in a new range that could go up to $95,
according to oil trader and analyst Stephen Schork.
That will push retail gasoline prices higher at a time of year when
prices tend to rise anyway.
The average nationwide retail price for gasoline hit $2.828 per
gallon Monday, an increase of 0.2 cent, according to AAA, Wright
Express and Oil Price Information Service. The price has risen 5.2
cents in the past month and now is 78.8 cents higher than a year
ago.
The government’s Energy Information Administration will release its
weekly pump price report later Monday.
As prices approach $3 per gallon, a mark many analysts expect gas
will hit over the next few weeks, the worry is that motorists will
cut back spending on fuel and elsewhere.
“It’s a price where you start to see demand destruction begin to
kick in,” Schork said.
Gasoline prices that hit $4.11 per gallon in July 2008 helped put
the country into the worst recession in decades. Oil prices, which
hit $147 that month, fell to $33 by December. Demand for fuel has
yet to bounce back, despite the signs that the economy is getting
better.
In other Nymex trading in May contracts, heating oil rose 5.08
cents to settle at $2.2675 a gallon, and gasoline gained 2.65 cents
to settle at $2.3502 a gallon. Natural gas picked up 19.1 cents to
settle at $4.277 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In London, Brent crude added $1.87 to settle at $85.88 on the ICE
futures exchange.
Scripps Interactive Newspapers Group
April 7th, 2010 at 10:13 am
This is rediculous, I can’t even afford to pay my rent, let alone paying for high gas prices… Something has to be done. It is getting way out of hand. I can’t afford to drive to work, and I live to far out to take a bus.
April 7th, 2010 at 1:37 pm
Why not ride bike or recumbent trike to the closest bus stop, anchor the bike/trike to the bus and ride to work? (unless, like many have chosen, you want to ride all the way to work)
Car pooling works too…if people needing to car pool had one place to sign up, Kitsap County would be well served.
The Kitsap Sun seems a logical place for such a sign up.
If people don’t buy the gas, it’ll come down soon enough.
Sharon O’Hara