Nevermind
Found a local article that says Chicago drivers want $4 a gallon
Illinois gas prices highest
Little outcry as cost creeps toward $4
By Robert Manor
Tribune staff reporter
May 22, 2007
Gasoline prices reached a record high Monday, with Illinois having the most expensive gas in the nation, just as vacationing motorists get ready for the Memorial Day weekend.
Curiously, gas costing well over $3 a gallon does not seem to be deterring vacationers and has not provoked the kind of social uproar seen in 1981, the last time prices were this high.
"It is almost as if consumers are resigned to this, that this is what they are going to be paying," said Beth Mosher, director of public affairs for AAA Chicago.
Gasoline has never been costlier after accounting for inflation, one energy expert said.
"In today's prices, the price of gasoline in 1981 was about $3.18 a gallon," said Stephen Brown, director of energy economics at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. He said that price had never been surpassed until now.
The average price of regular gasoline in Illinois Monday was $3.457, AAA reported. It has risen 54.9 cents during the past month and was more than 25 cents above the national average of $3.196.
Chicago's prices were even higher. The average price of regular gasoline in the city was $3.568, beaten only by a few West Coast cities in the San Francisco Bay area.
Both local and national factors are pushing up prices.
Chicago has particularly high taxes on gasoline. David Sykuta, executive director of the Illinois Petroleum Council, said the city of Chicago's high taxes make its gasoline the most expensive in the region.
But low inventories of gasoline also are doing much to raise fuel prices. An unusually high number of refineries have had to shut down unexpectedly for repairs at a time when they would ordinarily be building inventories of gas for the summer driving season. And the reformulated gasoline meant to reduce smog in Chicago and some other parts of the country is in short supply.
"This whole late spring has been especially tough on supply in the Midwest," Sykuta said.
In part, that is because of mishaps at refineries.
For example, the BP refinery in Whiting, Ind., one of the largest in the U.S. and a major supplier of the customized gasoline sold in Chicago during the summer, still is recovering from damage done earlier this year.
In late March, a fire curtailed production at the refinery, which can refine 405,000 barrels a day. Then, a power failure in early April caused more damage.
"Right now the refinery is running at about half of its normal output," said BP spokesman Scott Dean. "We are working around the clock to as quickly and safely as possible resume full production."
But he said the refinery may not return to full production until later in the summer.
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