REAL PAINS: It’s all a matter of perspective, is it not?
After our comment about gas prices appeared in RTS, we had a
couple responses.
Jerome R. Pier writes, “Come to Ontario, Canada. We’re paying
over 97 cents a liter which come out to be 3.56 per U.S. gallon
(with Canadian dollar at par with the U.S. dollar).”
Tom Ewell writes us from Montgomery, N.Y.: “Saw the note in
today’s (Wednesday’s) RTS about your gas prices. Here in the Hudson
Valley some places are now over $3 a gallon — gee, just in time for
college graduations and summer!”
Larry R. Fay — who lives in Anchorage, Alaska — puts us all to
shame.
“As with all of us, RTS readers are justifiably upset when there
is an increase in the price of gasoline. Try to imagine how the
residents of McGrath, Alaska, must have felt on Tuesday morning
this week. When they went to sleep Monday evening gas was $6.20 a
gallon but upon wakening, gas was $9.20 per gallon! This small
interior town on the Kuskokwim River is accessible only by boat or
plane. Fuel costs are reflective of delivery costs. At this time
of year the river is still frozen, so fuel can only be delivered by
planes. Anchorage’s $3.40 per gallon would seem a bargain to
them!
He also forwarded a news snippet from the Anchorage Daily News
Web site which explained the 50 percent rate hike overnight:
“Crowley Petroleum Distribution VP Bob Cox told Alaska
Newspapers Inc. today that the price increase was the result of the
expense of flying fuel to McGrath and generally higher global crude
oil prices. ‘What I regret is that people were surprised about
that,’ Cox said. ‘I regret that I didn’t give people more warning
that the price is coming. … When I saw these high prices were
coming through Monday and decided what the new price would be, we
cut our profit piece in that, because it was already so much
higher.”
Now, don’t you feel better!
Meanwhile on the home front, our gas prices continue to rise,
too. It was at $2.95 on Thursday.
WRONG ONE: Jim Belardia tells us we printed the wrong name for
that radio program sponsored by the Salvation Army. We had said
Heartbreak Theater; It was Heartbeat Theater.
