As pump prices rise, LI drivers scale back

Maurice Goode loved driving around in his Chevrolet Impala SS, but he said the recent pricey fill-ups took a big chunk out of his wallet.

So, the 42-year-old Bronx resident said he parked the 8-cylinder, high-performance vehicle two weeks ago and started driving his smaller Kia, which has a 4-cylinder engine.

"I had a '95 Impala SS, I tried that for two weeks and said forget it," Goode said Friday as he put $8 worth of regular into his Kia at the Mobil Station on Route 110 in East Farmingdale.

"Every little excuse to get into our pockets, that's what they do," Goode said.

On Friday, a gallon of regular unleaded averaged $3.683 in Nassau and Suffolk, up from $3.540 a week earlier, the AAA said. A year earlier, the Long Island average for a gallon of regular was $2.869, according to AAA.

The local prices are among the highest they have ever been at this time of year, though still well short of the Island's record average of $4.346 for regular in July 2008.

And we're not alone.

Gasoline prices are setting records across the country, even exceeding $4 a gallon in California, as the rise in crude oil, caused by fears that the unrest in Libya could spread to other fuel exporters in North Africa and the Middle East, punishes companies and consumers.

On Friday, the U.S. average for a gallon of regular unleaded was $3.471, up from $2.706 a year ago but lower than the record average of $4.114 in July 2008, according to the AAA.

Crude oil settled 2.5 percent higher Friday, at more than $104 a barrel - its highest level since September 2008, The Associated Press reported.

That jump prompted a stock market slide Friday, with the Dow Jones industrial average dropping 88.32 points, or 0.7 percent, to 12,169.88.

While filling his tank with premium - at $3.89 - for his BMW at a Hess gas station on Route 110, Jeff Bordiga, 59, of Dix Hills, said gas prices had gone up 20 cents a gallon just since his last fill-up. And he's not expecting things to change for the better anytime soon.

"The prices go up very quickly when the price of crude goes up," said Bordiga, a Manhattan art dealer, "but when the price of crude comes back down, gas prices don't follow nearly as quickly. It's really getting tiresome."

Meanwhile, at a Shell station in Melville, Maria Laino said she thinks gas prices are "terrible. They're too high." While she said she recently got a wage increase at work, "it's not going to cover this."

Laino said she would support a release of oil reserves by the federal government to reduce gas prices.

But Bordiga said it was "way too soon" for that step. "Prices aren't high enough. I think they will probably stop around $4." 

Heating oil
Average per gallon, full service dealers on Long Island

Monday: $3.94

Feb. 21: $3.811

A year ago: $3.057