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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Fed up, but still filling up

Jennifer Sudick Staff writer

The gas pump at the North Division Costco stopped pumping at $74.

But Howard Reisenauer wasn’t done filling the 34 gallon-plus tank of his GMC Suburban on Friday – he still had another five gallons, or $13, to go.

“I try not to drive it very much, but I have a big family – there’s six of us,” he said. “We can’t all fit in our smaller car.”

Reisenauer, who lives in Chattaroy, has tried to dodge rising gas prices recently by filling up at discount membership gas stations, such as Safeway and Costco. He’s also driving less and telling his kids to ride their bikes more.

Reisenauer is among a growing number of area residents feeling a pinch at the pump this summer.

Spokane gas prices have risen 11 cents a gallon for regular unleaded since the start of the month, to a record-high average of $2.54. That’s a 29 percent jump from $1.97 at this time last year. In Coeur d’Alene, gas prices are averaging $2.45 per gallon.

Spokane gas prices are 13 cents higher than the national average of $2.41, which increased 10 cents in the past month, according to AAA. The rise in gas prices is not expected to slow anytime soon, said Dave Overstreet, AAA director of public affairs for Eastern Washington.

He said AAA has predicted a 5 cent jump in prices nationally this weekend due in large part to unexpected, short-term closures of 10 U.S. oil refineries; a typically heavy summer traffic season; and the rise of crude oil prices, which topped a record $67 per barrel Friday.

Overstreet said 40 percent to 48 percent of the price of gas is a reflection of the price of crude oil.

But “a lot of the price of gasoline is supply and demand,” he said. “We need to either reduce demand or increase refinery capacity, and it’s been many years since a new refinery has come on line or expanded.”

Overstreet said West Coast prices have remained well above the national average, at $2.80 per gallon. And, despite the prices, the domestic demand for gas has risen 3 percent this year.

“People are ignoring the price,” he said. “Basically, people are saying, ‘Well, nothing is going to stop me.’ “

James Larkins was filling up a company truck for his employer, Mercedes-Benz of Spokane, at a Third Avenue Chevron station Friday, where regular unleaded gas was $2.58 a gallon. He said he always keeps his gas tank at least half full.

“They can go as high as they want,” he said. “It doesn’t change my lifestyle. You have got to go to work every day. Nothing stays the same.”

The Department of Energy reported Wednesday that gasoline prices will remain above $2.10 per gallon through 2005 and into 2006. The department expected gas prices to continue to rise until after Labor Day.

Overstreet said he isn’t sure they will flatten out then.

“From Memorial Day to Labor Day, the trend is to see them go up and see them start to come down,” he said. “In the last year that hasn’t been the case because we’ve been seeing record prices throughout the country, and they’ve had no place to go but up because they never did go down as they did in the past.”