Nick Jimenez

Sunday, July 9, 2000

Steam rises as the price per gallon climbs

As the price of gasoline has climbed, it has become a part of the daily pain of everyday life to watch helplessly as the numbers spin like a slot machine in Las Vegas every time we fill up. Only the winners at this one-armed bandit are the refineries and OPEC. Of course, that's the knee-jerk part of my brain saying that.
   My more reasoned side says that gasoline prices are the outcome of a complex formula of supply and demand, new requirements for cleaner fuels that take more oil to produce than the dirtier stuff, the shifting balance between the amount of oil that refineries have on hand and the amount of drilling for new oil, and other factors, including climate, world political changes (read Saddam) and other influences in the geopolitical environment. That's my cool, professional view of things.
   But, as I found out recently, it's hard to maintain that detached view as the price climbs up.
   Gassing up the family chariot for a trip toward Colorado recently, I expected that gas prices would be a tad on the rich side. As I filled up the first tank in Corpus Christi, I told myself that $1.40 plus gas is the price we pay for availability of a service station on every corner and that Europeans have it much worse.
   I lectured the family on our good fortune. Children in Europe go to bed crying because their parents pay $4 and $5 a gallon. Why, we ought to fall on our knees and thank Providence that we have the great fortune and opportunity to pay $1.40-plus for gasoline.
   And off we went with the old station wagon slurping down petrol that once sold for 30 cents a gallon.
   When I pulled over for our first refueling stop in the Hill Country, I winced slightly as the pump said $1.50 plus. Not to worry. Of course, there are differentials in prices across the country, I assured everyone. It's only natural that in the marketing and distribution of such a commodity as gasoline that there will be, shall we say, anomalies in the price.
   But under my breath, I had other thoughts. Is this guy trying to send all his kids through college on the strength of having this podunk service station next to an interstate?
   It was only a momentary gloomy thought on our trip across Texas; off we went, happy as larks, headed north.
   Somewhere south of Lubbock, and north of San Angelo, things got grimmer. Now we were in the $1.60 range and it was obvious that things price-wise were getting worse.
   A kind of gas rage set in. Who do these OPEC guys think they are? And, maybe it's time to use that anti-trust sledgehammer on the oil companies and the iron grip they have on the price of fuel.
   As I crossed over the Colorado line and pulled into the picturesque town of Trinidad, I began to appreciate the wisdom of Republicans who want to suspend federal gasoline taxes and raid the nation's petroleum storage deposits.
   I only caught a glimpse of $1.70 something on the pump, but I couldn't stand to look anymore. What an outrage! What perfidy! What mendacity! If Europeans were paying $20 a gallon, I could care less. I want my $1 a gallon gasoline back because, well, that's the way it's always been. (Well, maybe not always, but who's going to argue with an angry middle-aged man? OK, late middle-age.)
   My cool professional side could have pointed out that I was adding to the push on price by merely exercising my American propensity to wheel across the American continent. And that side could have pointed out that while driving hundreds of miles the number of vehicles we had seen that could be called human-sized conventional vehicles of moderate fuel consumption were few. Instead, the road was filled with Expeditions, Suburbans, Blazers, Tahoes, Cherokees and Durangos and other behemoths that leave behind imprints on the asphalt.
   Think blowing my stack didn't do any good? I read now that that the Saudis plan to increase production, thus, in time, driving down the price.
   Now that's more like it. No need to thank me.
   (Nick Jimenez can be reached at 886-3787 or by e-mail at jimenezn@caller.com.)
  

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