By Jim Stinson/Post-Tribune staff writer
For Northwest Indiana motorists, pumping gasoline has become an emotional intersection.
Prices may set records, officials warned Wednesday, and drivers openly talked of staying home or carpooling.
Last year about this time, gas hit $1.75 per gallon. That would be a bargain now.
On Wednesday, the AAA Hoosier Motor Club said Indiana had set a new statewide dollar-amount record for gas, and named Gary as the state’s highest place to pay at the pump, an average of $2.45 a gallon.
But actual gas prices in Northwest Indiana were even higher than that — and may remain so or even increase.
“I want to cry every time I pump it,” said Beth Nowlin, 23, a Valparaiso University student.
Nowlin was pumping gas at a Family Express self-serve store on North Calumet Avenue in Valparaiso.
Another area student has also had a run of bad luck at the pumps.
Erin Boyd, 20, works at a Subway restaurant along U.S. 30 in Valparaiso. A few days ago, she drove past a Family Express convenience store because she thought she could wait out higher prices.
“I thought $2.36 (per gallon) was too high,” said Boyd, of Kouts.
On Wednesday, she decided not to chance it. She pumped several gallons at the same store on Wednesday — at a price of $2.50 per gallon.
She did not pump her lime-colored Volkswagen Beetle too full.
“I only got six gallons and it was $15,” she said.
And more bad news was on the way.
The world crude markets set a record on Wednesday for a barrel of oil — more than $65 per unit.
The price per gallon may be setting various dollar-amount records, but many economists point to a 1981 U.S. price of $1.38 per gallon as the all-time high. Adjusted for inflation, the 1981 price would be about $3 per gallon in today’s dollars.
The news came at a bad time for President Bush, who flew into Illinois on Wednesday to sign a $286 billion transportation bill — one that he said won’t raise federal fuel taxes.
But with slumping presidential and congressional approval ratings, and rising gas prices, Republican leaders openly fret that the GOP may face Jimmy Carter-type political fortunes in the 2006 mid-term elections. $3 a gallon in 2005?
Doug MacIntyre, an oil-market analyst for the U.S. Energy Information Agency, said he doesn’t expect prices to hit a national average of $3 per gallon. But he said the four weeks leading up to Labor Day could drive prices higher than they are now.
“We’re likely to go above (a national average) of $2.40,” MacIntyre told the Post-Tribune on Wednesday.
Officials for the EIA said Wednesday that drivers can expect 2006 prices to be based on an average barrel price of $55 — and to expect a monthly average price of $2.10 per gallon.
That price may be a bargain.
The price per gallon is up about 40 percent from one year ago. The news has blared across television, news wires — and the gas lines.
It led to grumbling while people pumped.
Nowlin said it wouldn’t take national average prices of $3, or even $2.40 per gallon, for her to economize.
“I definitely have already cut back,” Nowlin said.
Boyd, a nursing student, said she may start carpooling to classes in Gary.
Solutions?
According to the EIA, the United States used 7.6 billion of barrels of oil in 2004. That’s about 20.73 million barrels per day.
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is estimated to contain 10 billion barrels of oil, enough to fuel America for more than a year without using any other sources.
It’s a large supplement, but MacIntyre said because of the environmental debate, the numbers have been spun by proponents and opponents.
Congressional Republicans announced plans last week to try to jump-start legislation to allow drilling in the Alaskan area.
As for oil availability, it seems unlikely that prices are the result of a shrinking oil supply, officials said.
“Oil resources are adequate to meet growing worldwide demand for at least the next 25 years,” the EIA Web page says.
It is production that has to catch up, MacIntyre said.
“There’s very little spare capacity,” MacIntyre said. “We expect production to increase.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.