Prices At The Pump Might Make You %$&@!

Gasoline Prices Steadily Climbing; Could Jump 30 Cents By Summer MINNEAPOLIS, Updated 8:58 a.m. CST March 8, 2000 -- Pull up, flip open the tank cover, grab the gas pump and hold onto that wallet.

Fuel prices have been rising steadily over the past month, and the train driving the increase has no brakes.

WCCO-TV reports that a typical price in the Twin Cities Wednesday was $1.55 a gallon for low-octane unleaded.

Jonah Popehn of Cambridge told WCCO-TV that he's noticed the creeping prices, but he's as powerless as anyone else with a gas-consuming vehicle.

"What can we really do about it?" he asked. Popehn said that he probably would limit his trips to the essentials: work and the grocery store.

Driving the price hike are significant increases in the cost of crude oil. A barrel of crude oil cost $13 in March 1999, and $32 this month, WCCO-TV reported.

Those barrel prices are at a nine-year high. Adding to the problem is slower production, which is not keeping up with the demand.

There's no relief in sight. Prices at the pump are expected to jump another 30 cents by this summer, WCCO-TV said.

Meanwhile, as the spring and summer travel season nears, resort and lodge owners in northern Minnesota aren't too concerned that rising oil prices will keep tourists away.

"Most of the people we get, it doesn't seem to faze," said Kevin Walsh, a manager at the Gunflint Lodge, about 45 miles up the Gunflint Trail from Grand Marais. And while the clientele at a prestigious resort destination won't likely cancel in-state plans over a $2 gallon of gas, the truth is, most other folks probably won't either, resort owners say.

One of the most northerly resort clusters in the state, Grand Marais is about 280 miles from the Twin Cities. In getting there, the difference between $1 per gallon and $1.50 per gallon is a mere $14 round-trip for the average SUV getting 20 miles per gallon.

That's not much for someone prepared to spend more than $100 per night on a small cabin or lodge room.

Walsh said that gas prices will hit the Gunflint Lodge hardest in its power boat rental business, the price for which is fixed because it is printed in its brochures.

"We're just going to have to eat that cost," Walsh said.

Believe it or not, higher gas prices actually could help the in-state "rubber-tire" tourism industry, said Chuck Linnen, marketing director for the Minnesota Office of Tourism.

"The best thing we can do is to emphasize shorter getaways closer to home," Linnen said.

The office plans to dust off its "trips on a tankful" campaign, which Linnen said had some success during the fall color season last year.

"People won't cancel any vacations, but they might not go up to the Badlands or out West this summer," he said. "They're still going to go somewhere."

Todd Krynski, general manager of Cove Point Lodge near Grand Marais, said that northern resorts are still more concerned with lack of snow.

"January and February have been pretty good to us, but March has been awfully warm," Krynski said. "I'm sure (gas prices) will be some kind of factor, because it's going to affect the price of everything. We're just going to have to take it one hit at a time."

A Sampling Of Gas Prices In Recent Years:

December 1998: 97 cents per gallon for self-serve regular unleaded December 1997: 93 cents April 1997: $1.27

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), March 08, 2000

Answers

Hi,in central ny they just went to $1.65 for the cheapest unleaded gasoline.

-- J@home (jax@borg.com), March 09, 2000.

In Hilo, Hawaii today premium was $2.01.99 today...regular was something like $1.86.

-- Margo (margos@bigisland.com), March 10, 2000.