Gas prices spur talk of gouging

The middle of winter feels more like the heart of summer at gas stations nationwide, as fuel prices surge past $2 a gallon in some places and motorists grumble about being gouged.

When a gallon of gas costs more than a cup of gourmet coffee around the July Fourth holiday, drivers chalk it up to industry greed during the peak driving season. Now consumers are accusing oil companies of taking advantage of the prospect of war in Iraq – an allegation the industry brushes aside as a conspiracy theory.

Gas station owners tell a more complicated story, explaining that today’s high pump prices are partly the result of avarice, but not their own.

The average retail price of regular unleaded has risen 56 cents since the beginning of the year to $1.66 a gallon. Meanwhile, wholesale gas prices have increased only 14 cents over the same period of time. That disparity is the source of ire for much of the public, while others accept high gas prices as a consequence of war rhetoric from the Bush administration.

The average price of regular gasoline in Maine was $1.657 a gallon on Thursday, according to the American Automobile Association. That was more than 15 cents higher than the average price a month ago and considerably higher than the average price of $1.174 a year ago. In the Bangor metro area, the average price per gallon Thursday was slightly higher than the state average at $1.685.

“This is ridiculous,” said 20-year-old Jose Quiles, a tanning salon manager in Dallas, who paid about $10 Thursday for a little more than 6 gallons of Exxon-branded gasoline.

Corina Alba, 22, sees some correlation between gas prices and the possibility of war in Iraq, but the Anaheim, Calif., resident doubts international affairs solely explain the situation.

“I think it’s just an excuse to raise prices,” Alba said.

Earlier in the week, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., called on the Federal Trade Commission to launch an investigation of industry practices. “It appears as if price gouging is taking place across the country,” Schumer said in a letter to FTC chairman Timothy Muris.

The American Automobile Association supports Schumer’s request. The travel company said it is also concerned about why prices have gone up so much in such a short period of time, though a spokesman stopped short of using the term gouging.

“We feel that most of the increase has been due to fear and speculation, rather than any change in the supply or demand for crude oil or gasoline,” said Jeff Sunstrom, a spokesman for AAA. Regardless of the reasons, Sunstrom worries that today’s high prices could be a harbinger of even costlier fuel by the end of April.

“Watch out between April 15 and May 31,” said Tom Kloza, director of Oil Price Information Service, a Lakewood, N.J., publisher of industry data. Kloza said the imports lost after Venezuela’s oil workers went on strike in December have not been adequately replaced and that could be a problem when the weather heats up and demand rises.

Gas prices typically rise during spring, when refiners shift from winter- to summer-grade fuel. The switch to cleaner-burning gas requires shutting down equipment, scrubbing it clean and starting it up all over again – a process that causes supplies to contract and prices to move higher even under the best conditions.

The impact of this switch has already been magnified by the possibility of a U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, analysts said.

Trucker Tommy Wimberly paid $280 to fill up his rig with 166 gallons of diesel in Camillia, Ga., or about a third more than a month ago. “I don’t like the high prices, but I’m not angry,” said Wimberly, 43, who expects prices to go even higher if the United States goes to war with Iraq.

“There’s nothing I can do about it,” he said.

As the public face of the industry, gas station owners are frustrated by accusations of profiteering, but they insist they’re not the ones to blame. They say suppliers have been steadily upping their “rack” prices for weeks and that station owners are merely passing along the changes to customers without any benefit to their bottom lines.

“I realize that the price of a barrel of oil has gone up tremendously, but the way that rack prices have gone up for the last two weeks is just not right,” said Richard Loeber, owner of a Hess station in Union Beach, N.J. About 40 percent of the retail cost of gasoline is attributed to the price of crude oil, which has risen 19 percent since the start of the year to $36.79 per barrel.