Thursday, March 10th, 2022
Gas prices high, getting higher
AAA: Ohioans won't alter travel
By William Kincaid
Photo by Paige Sutter/The Daily Standard
Gabe Oakley of Montezuma fills up his truck at the Shell gas station on South Main Street in Celina Tuesday afternoon. The price for regular gasoline was $4.09 per gallon.
CELINA - Local motorists are feeling the pinch at the pump with a gallon of regular unleaded gas ranging from $3.98 to $4.19 at area gas stations on Wednesday.
"I think it's terrible. It should never be this high," said Elise Rice as she filled up her Honda Pilot at Shell on Grand Lake Avenue in Celina.
At $4.04 a gallon after a 5 cent reward discount, it would cost a little more than $80 for Rice to fill her 20 gallon tank.
Rising costs
As of Wednesday, the national average regular gas price was $4.25, smashing the record of $4.11 set in 2008, said Bill Purpura, director of corporate communications with AAA. The average price in Ohio was trending a bit under at $4.07 per gallon.
In comparison, last year at this time, the average gas price was $2.76 nationally and $2.70 in Ohio, Purpura said.
"That's an incredible jump," Purpura said Wednesday.
Purpura attributes the extraordinary rise in fuel costs to a perfect storm of factors that likely will continue.
"Drivers are caught in a trap right now," he said. "The domestic supply is down. We have come away from being energy independent. Of course there is the war in Ukraine and that's crippling supply and on top of that President Biden (on Tuesday) said that the United States would no longer purchase oil from Russia because of this conflict."
Compounding the situation further is escalating demand, Purpura said.
"We've come out of the pandemic," he said. "More people are returning to work. Pretty soon people will be heading out for spring break and summer travel and all that so this is the time of year where it would normally start going up anyway - but not to these levels, for sure."
Photo by Paige Sutter/The Daily Standard
The price for regular gasoline at the Marathon station on South Main Street Tuesday in Celina was $4.19 per gallon.
High prices to stick around
Purpura said he doesn't expect any relief from high gas prices in the foreseeable future.
"I don't think these prices are going to come down any time soon. However, I do know that the administration is working with other oil suppliers outside of Russia to fill the gap," he said. "I think the longterm solution is to shore up domestic production, at least for America's needs."
Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, a gas price tracking service, offered a similar assessment in a Monday news release.
De Haan said massive spikes coast to coast in both gasoline and diesel prices as oil prices have risen to their highest levels since 2008
"Forget the $4 per gallon mark, the nation will soon set new all-time record highs and we could push closer to a national average of $4.50/gal. California could be heading for $5.50 per gallon with more stations charging $6 and beyond," De Haan said in the release.
"We've never been in this situation before with this level of uncertainty," De Haan said. "As we lose a major global producer under the weight of deserving bipartisan sanctions for invading a sovereign country, the cost is high."
Effects beyond the pump
The effect of high gas prices goes way beyond what people are paying at the pump, Purpura said.
"It's going to impact everything that we buy whether it's groceries, new clothes, a hammer at the hardware store because there's a cost to getting goods to market," he said, adding the uptick in transportation costs will be passed down to the general public.
Energy prices are contributing to the worst inflation Americans have seen in 40 years, far outpacing higher wages, according to the Associated Press.
Consumer prices jumped 7.5% in January, compared with a year earlier, and analysts predict a 7.9% increase when the government reports February figures later this week.
Back at the pump in Celina, Rice, addressed the personal impact of high gas prices.
"Fortunately I work from home so I don't have to drive a whole lot and my kids are home schooled," she said.
However, to balance the budget, Rice said her family will probably eat more meals at home until things settle down.
"But from what I heard it's not going to get any better. It's only going to get worse," she said.
Ryan Brophy of Celina, who was filling up his Jeep Liberty, bemoaned the high gas prices Wednesday.
"It's wrong. It's wrong what they're doing to the American people. This is basically like a second tax on the American people," he said.
Less than two years ago gas prices were under $2 a gallon. Now they're right back were they were during the years of President Barack Obama, Brophy said.
Brophy said the rising prices won't affect his driving habits much because he can afford the increase. But he knows it will hurt others.
"I know plenty of people, they're going to have to start really going through their budget in deciding how much food they can buy versus how much fuel they have to," he said.
Photo by Paige Sutter/The Daily Standard
Sierra Saylor of Van Wert waits as her van fills up with gas at the Marathon gas station on North Main Street in Celina on Tuesday afternoon.
A glimmer of hope
However, even with the negative consequences of escalating gas prices, Purpura anticipates 2022 will be a big year for travel - unless something else unexpected occurs.
"There's just too much pent up demand and people aren't going to let these gas prices stand in the way of their long awaited trips," he said.
Many have already booked cruises, made airplane reservations or rented vacation homes.
"They're not going to cancel at this point, for sure," he said.
Purpura's prediction, should it materialize, would be good news for the Grand Lake area.
"I think that Ohio travel is going to see a lot of people," he said. "When you think about the Ohio attractions like Grand Lake St. Marys, like the theme parks, like Hocking Hills, like Amish country, Ohio's got this rich tradition of travel."
Overall, tourism in the past five years has generated more than $351 million to the economies of Mercer and Auglaize Counties, said Donna Grube, director of the Greater Grand Lake Visitors Center, during the center's annual awards reception in May 2021.
Being such a short distance from major cities makes the area perfect for people looking to take a weekend or day trip that isn't too far away from home, she had said.
