Gas, diesel prices rise fast

Cost per gallon of unleaded rises 46 cents in BR in one month

Advocate staff photo by RICHARD ALAN HANNON -- Long-haul truck driver Doug Naramore,70, of Cullman, Ala., who remembers when gasoline was 19 cents a gallon, pumps 125 gallons of diesel -- costing $500 -- into his rig Tuesday at the Tiger Truck Stop in Grosse Tete. Naramore, who was driving home from New Iberia with a load of salt blocks, is among those grappling with the recent hike in gasoline prices.

Skyrocketing gasoline prices have grabbed the attention of motorists, school districts and government agencies.

The average price of regular unleaded gasoline in Baton Rouge is $3.65 per gallon, which is 46 cents per gallon higher than one month ago, according to the American Automobile Association’s daily price report.

The price of diesel is $3.98 per gallon, up from $3.73 a month ago and troublesome for public school districts since buses run on diesel.

“Everybody is feeling it,” said Michael Faulk, president of the Louisiana Association of School Superintendents and head of the Central school system.

Laquetra Pidgeon, 29, who was getting gasoline Tuesday at a station at Plank Road and Evangeline Street, said filling up her Ford Expedition is out of the question for now. “It would be like $135, $140,” she said.

Thomas Lopez, 41, a long-haul truck driver who lives in Brownsville, Texas, was making a run to Mount Airy, N.C., on Tuesday that will earn him about $4,000.

In normal times gasoline costs would subtract about $1,000 from the $4,000. Now it is about $1,800.

“Fuel prices are like, whoa,” said Lopez, who has been driving trucks for 17 years.

Lopez spent $650 to put 162.5 gallons in his truck at $3.99 per gallon.

He, like others, is unclear on why prices have shot up so fast. “Definitely someone wants to make some money,” Lopez said.

Despite the spike in prices, the East Baton Rouge Parish school system is managing, said Susan Nelson, interim executive director for communications and external affairs.

“In other words, there is a zone within which prices can swing and still be within our budget,” Nelson wrote in an email.

“However, if the prices are expected to exceed, for instance, the highest price last year for a protracted period of time, then we would see some budget impacts,” she said.

Diesel costs for the school system averaged $3.87 per gallon last year and reached a high of $4.06 per gallon.

The high so far this year is $4.07.

Fuel accounts for 14 percent of the district’s transportation budget, or about $3.2 million, Nelson wrote.

Faulk said school systems like Central, which rely on a privatized school bus fleet, depend on contracts that say if gas prices exceed a certain level, operators are automatically reimbursed.

“They have exceeded it,” he said. “It is hitting everybody.”

The national average for regular unleaded gasoline is $3.78 per gallon, up from $3.34 a month ago.

Earlier this month the government increased its forecast for gasoline prices by 11 cents, to an average of $3.55 per gallon.

That would be the second-highest annual average, officials said, behind only last year’s $3.63 per gallon average.

The statewide average is $3.66 per gallon for regular unleaded gasoline, up from $3.22 a month ago.

Don Redman, spokesman for AAA in Louisiana, said prices often rise around this time of year when refiners stop putting gas in the inventory while they change from winter grade gasoline to the cleaner-burning summer grade.

But Redman said that often happens in the spring, and the price peak last year was during the first week of April and in 2011 it was May.

“But this is February,” he noted.

The Ascension Parish school system has been able to handle the higher prices, said Johnnie W. Balfantz Jr., public information officer. Officials budgeted diesel fuel at $4 per gallon for its 242 buses rather than the traditional $3.60-$3.75 per gallon, he said.

School boards have more flexibility in their budgets for gasoline price hikes than in the past, said Scott Richard, executive director of the Louisiana School Boards Association.

However, Richard noted that the state of education finances — state aid for public schools has been generally frozen for four consecutive years — means that higher gasoline prices have an effect.

“It definitely has a negative impact on school board budget processes,” he said.

Lt. Don Kelly, spokesman for the Baton Rouge Police Department, said his department, like others, buys fuel through the city-parish Department of Public Works, which makes purchases in bulk.

As a result, Kelly said, “the prices we’re paying for fuel aren’t necessarily the same as what you and I pay at the pump to fill up our personal vehicles.”

Capt. Doug Cain, a spokesman for the State Police, said officials are monitoring fuel consumption amid higher prices.

Advocate staff writer
Faimon A. Roberts III and
The Associated Press
contributed to this report.

Comments

1) Comment by DMJ - 27/02/2013

Folgers, yes, trespassing on private property is a crime, one that applies to people born in any country...but simply being in the U.S. illegally is not. I take it you haven't taken it upon yourself to ask an authority? Right. Come back when you do and be ready to eat your words and some humble pie. Oh, and by the way... get on the web and research how long it would take to make 10,000,000 legal Mexican immigrants. There are limits to how many people the U.S. will even accept per year, limits which, at the time were based on an idea of fairness but now, have no basis in reality. Of course, I feel silly telling you to look something up that might make you eat your words. I know you won't.

2) Comment by jedleland - 27/02/2013

It was actually a very clever segment on the Daily Show that night (almost as good as the one tracking the process by which federal laws designed to regulate guns have been utterly defanged by NRA-sponsored ear marks but thats another story) - Enjoy: While Mitt Romney blamed his loss on Obama voters' bribability, Romney supporters saw a more permanent stark sea change. BILL O'REILLY (11/6/2012): “It's not a traditional America anymore.” 11/12/2012: BILL O'REILLY: “Traditional America as we knew it is gone. Ward, June, Wally, and the Beav outta here.” BERNIE GOLDBERG: “Yeah, pretty much.” Yes, yes Bill. Obama's re-election marked the moment that traditional America ended. The moment when the family from the 1950s sitcom Leave It to Beaver... ceased to be real. Yes, Obama's re-election was a moment when traditional America realized that even their witch wives couldn't save them from being replaced. Bill O'Reilly, what are you talking about?? BILL O'REILLY (11/6/2012): “The demographics are changing. ... The white establishment is now the minority.” Yes. As America's demographics have always been changing, and the old establishment always giving way to — and resenting — a new establishment, Mr. O'Reilly and Mr. Goldberg. Or perhaps, Mr. O'Reilly is forgetting the — hold on — 19th century. When people with names like O'Reilly were described in The Christian Examiner newspaper with phrases like: THE CHRISTIAN EXAMINER (1848): “The ill-clad and destitute Irishman is repulsive to our habits and our tastes.” And by the way, The Christian Examiner newspaper at that time, considered to be one of the more progressive newspapers by acknowledging the Irish to be human. Here's Harper's Weekly on the 19th century threat to traditional white America: HARPER'S WEEKLY (10/20/1860): “We have given them land... employment at far better wages than they could have obtained at home; and political rights. ... They have come to us steeped in ignorance and superstition... nearly seventy-five percent of our criminals and paupers are Irish.” See, Bill? I mean, you guys turned most of that around. Now as your friend Bernie Goldberg, Bill, I did search microfiche, Library of Congress, and could not find any instances at any point in American history when traditional Americans didn't like Jews. There was nothing there, I tried. Turns out, apparently, Jews have always been in America, and always been loved and accepted. Wish I could say the same for Catholicism. BILL O'REILLY (11/13/2012): “Only about 30% of American Catholics now attend weekly mass. So you can see the impact of creeping secularism on the religious vote. On paper, the stats look hopeless for traditional Americans.” Right! As stats about creeping Catholicism in the 1840s looked to the American Society to Promote the Principles of the Protestant Reformation, or AS-P-P-P-R. They hadn't cracked the acronym thing yet then. But they were pretty sure that the extension of Catholicism endangered America's peace and freedom. And back in the Leave It to Beaver days you miss so much, America wouldn't even elect a Catholic President, until JFK gave a speech assuring Protestant clergy that he wouldn't take orders from the Pope! Though Kennedy did admit he took orders from something else that starts with a "P" and also resembles a wrinkled old man wearing a hat. And how do you think traditional Americans would have reacted to a Mormon candidate for President? Seeing as in 1857, President Buchanan sent the U.S. Army to Utah to fight them. And believe me, not to protect America's claim to its least drinkable lake. Bernie! Bernie, Bill, Fox, bubulas! You don't need to worry so much! What you are demonstrating is the health and vitality of America's greatest tradition — a fevered, frightened ruling class lamenting the rise of a new ethnically and religiously diverse new class, one that will destroy all that is virtuous and good, and bring the American experiment crashing to the ground. Except you're forgetting one thing. That is the American experiment. An ethnic group arriving on America's shores to be reviled and hazed, living in squalor — or if they're lucky, Squalor Heights — working hard to give their children or grandchildren the opportunity to s**t on the next group landing on our shores. So enough! Enough! Relax! Enough with the lamentations! Unless your real name is Sitting Bill, you've got nothing to complain about.

3) Comment by jedleland - 27/02/2013

and you cant vote. or get free healthcare that isnt emergency care. try today to go to your Soc Sec office without a SSN card and get benefits. same with unemployment office. and medicaid. and voting. let us know how far you get. i already know. you cant get past the first form to fill out. then you get immediately rejected. i like what john stewart (very Jewish) had to say when Oreilly lamented the loss of 'traditional' (ie white) america after the romney loss. after using old newspaper editorials from the 19th century to remind Oreilly how irish immigrants were once considered (hint: not clean, not welcome, not useful and not american) stewart finished up with "What you are demonstrating is the health and vitality of America's greatest tradition — a fevered, frightened ruling class lamenting the rise of a new ethnically and religiously diverse new class, one that will destroy all that is virtuous and good, and bring the American experiment crashing to the ground. "Except you're forgetting one thing — that is the American experiment." true enough. the only constant is change. we were red, then white, one day we will be brown. after that? who knows.

4) Comment by jedleland - 27/02/2013

immigration laws in mexico are meaningless. the laws in the US state clearly that people here without visas are not criminals but violate civil law, just like you did last time you got a ticket. most americans are over it. they arent going away. they remain steadfastly brown and probably will speak spanish their whole lives. they were in TX, NM, AZ, CA long before the anglos took over the property without visas or documentation. you pay artificially low prices at walmart and albertsons and holiday inn and mcdonalds and target and exxon becuase they work for very cheap. you benefit from their cheap labor much more than you know. time to get over it.

5) Comment by jedleland - 27/02/2013

read the post directly below yours. its correct. its not a criminal offense. not all lawbreakers are criminals. someone getting a speeding ticket breaks the law but isnt a criminal. someone entering the country without a visa breaks a law but isnt a criminal either. most americans now favor a path to citizenship for 'illegals' . people like me. and it is OUR country after all

6) Comment by foldgers - 27/02/2013

And I love how they are now called "undocumented workers." Not all who come here ILLEGALLY come here to work. So, they can not all be called that. They are ALL illegal immigrants. And let's assume in Mexico there are, to be small scale here, 100 people crossing the border from another surrounding country, does Mexico consider them criminals or consider them "undocumented workers?" Hmmm. How bout this Twinkie and even DMJ, go to Mexico illegally. You think over there you will be able to work, vote, get free schooling, free healthcare, a drivers' license, amnesty? But we should allow that here? No thank you. I have NO problem whatsoever with someone who comes here legally, heck, make 10,000,000 Mexicans citizens if they all do it legally. I don't care. Just don't break OUR laws!

7) Comment by foldgers - 27/02/2013

Twinkie, really? They are in prison for a reason. If a US citizen trespasses onto my property, they will go to jail, they are a criminal. Same goes for if someone trespasses into OUR country, they are breaking the law and are criminals. How is it OK for someone to come here ILLEGALLY and work, bot not OK for someone to go onto my property illegally?

8) Comment by DMJ - 27/02/2013

Host, you're actually wrong. Simply being an undocumented immigrant is not a criminal offense; it is a civil one. Don't believe us? Ask a prosecutor or an immigration lawyer. Go ahead.... we'll wait. Then, we'll talk about who's to simplistic to discuss public policy issues.

9) Comment by The_Host - 27/02/2013

Twinkie- If you enter into the country without going through customs you are breaking the law. Once you have broken the law you are labeled a criminal. If you can't understand something as simplistic as that you have no business even thinking about issues that need actual logic applied to them. Exisitng in general on the face of the earth is not a crime, existing where you are not allowed to be without proper documentation is a crime.

10) Comment by nimby? - 27/02/2013

might look funny selling fruits , vegetables , seafood on the side of the road out the trunk of a Prius .

11) Comment by Duckyluve - 27/02/2013

How can racetrac buy gas from Exxon and then sell it 8-10 cents a gallon cheaper than Exxon can at their own stations?

12) Comment by DMJ - 27/02/2013

Gee... it's expensive to fill up a Ford Expedition? Go figure. Sell that monstrosity and get a sensible car....and drive less. Gas prices are going to rise and fall, but they're always going to rise, no matter how much of the earth we destroy in order to get at it. Drive less. That's the only way to consistently spend less on gas.

13) Comment by nimby? - 27/02/2013

my apologies for leaving the subject , but I gottta rant . twinkie , the Dems don't care about minorities , just their votes . they continuously ignore the native population while courting the favors of larger , more easily manageable groups buying favors so they'll vote in mass . as far as your christians we have them to thank for atrocities(rape , murder , genocide) committed towards indigenous peoples around the world in promotion of their religion .... back to the subject . this article is another example of blatant hypocrisy ignored , carry on .

14) Comment by twinkie1cat - 27/02/2013

Well Foldgers, I see you are on a roll again this morning. Why don't you go on down to Social Security and apply for your crazy check? Undocumented workers are not criminals unless they commit a crime. Existing should never be a crime. Trying to support your family and working hard on jobs most people don't want should not be characterized as "criminal". Killing people, rape, armed robbery, child abuse, drunk driving, stealing money from your job, those things are crimes. Hitler made being Jewish, Catholic, Gypsy, Black, elderly, disabled or gay a crime. We do not need to slip into that mode of thinking no matter what the Republicans want. God's people are God's people. "Red and yellow, black and white they are precious in God's sight." If we followed the teachings of Jesus in America this would be a much better place to live. (And I don't mean the Old Testament, either. We are no longer under the rules of the ancient Hebrews.)

15) Comment by RODEO CLOWN - 27/02/2013

Glimmer of hope! Since Monday of this week, the refinery head price for gasoline has dropped 10 cents a gallon. This is the most gasoline has dropped in over two months. Hopefully, this trend will continue.

16) Comment by caucajun - 27/02/2013

If the clueless reporter had done some research it would show the GAO reports that the EPA has mandated 70 different blends of gasoline. If you want a good idea of why this makes no sense, meet me in St. Louis. St. Louis, Missouri, uses one kind of gasoline; East St. Louis, Illinois, right across the Mississippi River, uses a different blend. Meanwhile, the surrounding suburbs use a third kind. Same metropolitan area, different gasolines, and they can’t be sold across jurisdictional lines, so refiners and distributors must maintain three separate systems for the three parts of the St. Louis metro area. Is this a conspiracy of the evil oil companies to fatten their margins? Mostly no: It’s the product of EPA bureaucrats and the Clean Air Act, stubbornly maintained even though boutique fuels now deliver only marginal reductions in air pollution from cars, if any at all. And it’s a regulation President Obama could clear away if he wanted to. It wouldn’t deliver a large reduction in gasoline pump prices, but even 10 to 15 cents a gallon—a plausible figure for California’s market—would help. The clueless reporter should also know that long haul trucks run on DIESEL not gasoline.

17) Comment by foldgers - 27/02/2013

speaktruth, exactly! I remember the world was going to end when gas hit $2 a gallon. Now, almost $4 and all is good, no worries....but, the world is going to end when the government has to cut 2% from the budget....Oh no!!! I read that the DHS is releasing thousands of illegal immigrants due to budget cuts. Illegal immigrant CRIMINALS, because they wil not be able to afford the cuts. http://news.yahoo.com/dhs-releasing-illegal- immigrants-sequester-135405822.html (I love how this administration is making the world end over $85 billion, when it was so easy to find about $30 billion for the Hurricane Sandy victims. Not to mention the millions HE just spent on vacation playing golf with Tiger Woods....

18) Comment by Hello Baton Rouge - 27/02/2013

Thanks Obama lol

19) Comment by ABayouBoy - 27/02/2013

Wish that I owned stock in Shell....

20) Comment by zealer99 - 26/02/2013

There isn't a national election so the cap is off. They will squeeze it down to $5.00 a gallon for the next big election in 2016.

21) Comment by tball - 26/02/2013

Yep, it's G. Bush fault!!!!

22) Comment by speakthetruth - 26/02/2013

I remember when the price of gas went to $2.50 during the Bush administration, the press and democrats were all over him asking him what he was going to do about it. Bush went into our oil reserves to stabilize the price. I guess B.O. gets a free pass on this too. Remember people, the media is the enemy.