Thursday, June 8, 2000 L O C A L N E W S

Gasoline prices jump again at Louisville-area stations

By ED GREEN, The Courier-Journal

Gasoline prices took another big jump yesterday at many Louisville-area stations, with motorists reacting with resignation or anger.

The price for premium went to $2.01 a gallon yesterday at the Bigfoot at 4300 Shelbyville Road, and it didn't go unnoticed, said cashier Tyler Kraus.

"I was putting up it up on the sign and a guy said, 'You better watch yourself, somebody's going to shoot you for those gas prices,' " Kraus said.

Stations around town reported price increases of roughly 10 to 17 cents a gallon.

"It's just oil prices. They do what they want," said Jim Mosier, who works at the Marathon station at 10th and Main streets in Jeffersonville, Ind. He was explaining why its prices will go up 25 cents this morning -- "the largest increase I've seen in a while." That will put regular unleaded at $1.75.

Yesterday's spike in pump prices is probably a delayed reaction to a steep rise in wholesale prices for a new type of reformulated gasoline since the beginning of May, said Scott Berhang, an editor with the Oil Price Information Service.

With continuing distribution problems plaguing the new formula, "I don't think this thing is going to ease anytime in the near future," Berhang said.

Leslie Berry, a cashier at the BP service station at 1830 Blankenbaker Parkway, said most customers seem resigned about rising prices. The station's price for regular rose 17 cents to $1.79 yesterday, and premium reached $1.99, she said.

'Nobody's really said anything except some regular customers who joked about us getting a raise," Berry said.

Not all motorists were so jocular. Jim Cooke said he was outraged when he realized the price had gone up 21 cents since Monday at the Super-America station on Greenwood Road near his home.

Cooke, 67, said he doesn't understand why gas stations and oil companies are allowed to raise prices so much.

Staff writer Harold J. Adams contributed to this story.

http://www.courier-journal.com/localnews/2000/0006/08/000608gas.html

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