Gasoline Prices

Consumer frustration over high gasoline prices has apparently been judged blind-rage-inducing enough to trot out the usual discredited solution, domestic oil drilling. President Bush recently reiterated his desire to drill just about everywhere from Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to the Gulf of Mexico as a way to offer consumers relief at the pump. Sen. John McCain, whose energy credentials were already suspect with his earlier endorsement of a counterproductive (at least as a solution to gas prices)

Gasoline prices continue to climb, and the Republican presidential candidates would have us believe that this is the direct result of President Barack Obama's energy policies. They say that if only he would get out of the way of the oil companies and stop dreaming up ever more environmental regulations, we'd all be paying $2.50 a gallon. They are wrong, of course. Gasoline prices are high because demand is high. And while the unquenchable thirst for petroleum in India and China has a place it all of this, it is mostly my fault.

Gasoline prices at Baltimore area service stations have fallen by more than 5 cents a gallon in the past several weeks.A survey that revealed the same trend nationwide attributed the drop to lower winter demand and increased oil supplies.The average price for all grades of gasoline at full- and self-service stations, including taxes, was $1.2522 per gallon on Friday, according to the biweekly Lundberg Survey of more than 13,000 service stations nationwide.L The survey found the price was down 5.13 cents from Jan. 25."

Baltimore taxi customers will see a decrease in fares next week but cabdrivers are protesting the change because of fewer fares in the poor economy, other increasing expenses and rising gasoline prices. As of March 1, the rate will decrease by 55 cents, lowering the cost from $2.20 to $1.65 per mile. In addition, the flat rate that riders pay for trips from downtown hotels to Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport will decrease from $30 to $22. Goitom Gebre-Ab and Tsegaye Yitbarek, both drivers for about two decades, said the notice about the decreased surcharge arrived on the same day as a letter announcing that their dues and insurance costs would increase by $6 per week.

Retail gasoline prices hit a record high yesterday, the American Automobile Association said, months before the start of the peak summer driving season. The increase, to an average price of $1.74 per gallon for regular gasoline, exceeds by one-tenth of a penny the record set Aug. 30. And it reflects a substantial increase in oil prices over the past three months. Yesterday, the AAA reported that California had the highest average gasoline prices, at $2.14 a gallon. The lowest average price was recorded in Georgia and South Carolina, at $1.61 a gallon.

Katie Burley had her hand on the pump handle but her eyes on the numbers as gasoline flowed into the fuel tank of her 15-year-old blue Volvo station wagon. After the pump stopped, she tore off her receipt. "Oh, my God, I just spent $20 on gas," said Burley, a 20-year-old student at the Maryland Institute, College of Art, who stopped last week at the Amoco station at St. Paul Street and Mount Royal Avenue in Baltimore. She said she'll be riding her bike more this summer. In the wake of gasoline prices that exceeded $2 a gallon last year in the Midwest, motorists are bracing for another summer of volatile prices at the pump after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries announced cuts in crude oil production this month.

When Gov. Martin O'Malley gives his annual State of the State address Wednesday, he will officially unveil his plan to apply a 6 percent sales tax to gasoline. The public's mood about gas prices being what it is, the governor probably shouldn't expect huge applause — despite the fact he deserves it. Maryland hasn't raised the gasoline tax since William Donald Schaefer was governor two decades ago, and the current rate — applied as a 23.5-cent charge per gallon — has been rendered insufficient by inflation.

THESE DAYS, a trip to the gas station can wreck your afternoon -- especially if you own a burly pickup truck, or one of those SUVs that licks its chops the second you pull up to the pumps.Gasoline prices, after hitting a multiyear low in February, have surged a numbing 39 percent, to an average retail price of $1.26 per gallon. That's a three-year high, says one government survey.Higher gasoline prices nearly always rankle U.S. consumers, partly because we view driving a gas-guzzler as an American birthright.

Reminiscent of last year's price explosion, the cost of a gallon of gasoline has shot up nearly 20 cents in the past month, to an average of $1.27 in Maryland and $1.30 nationwide. But the pumps still charge three-fourths what they charged in the spring of last year, and energy experts say there's no reason to fear that this year's price rise will be as big as the last one. "Gas prices are up, but there's some good news: We're lower than last year," said Myra Wieman, manager of public affairs for AAA Mid-Atlantic.

DURING the Arab oil boycott of 1974, Americans were shocked to learn that more than one-third of their oil came from abroad. But now, half does. The U.S. and its allies won World War II because they had 90 percent of the oil reserves that went to war. The war was won on U.S. oil exports. Those days are long gone.What this can mean is shown by the shock to Americans when gasoline prices recently shot up more than a nickel a gallon after months of flat, low prices had created a false illusion of price security.