Mon, Jul 07 2008
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Published May 09, 2008 09:19 pm - President Bush blames Congress. The leaders of Congress blame Bush. While the back-and-forth escalates, the prices of gasoline and diesel soar to record highs with no end in sight. Area residents cite difficulty dealing with jump in fuel prices By Wally Kennedy and Melissa Dunson news@joplinglobe.com President Bush blames Congress. The leaders of Congress blame Bush. While the back-and-forth escalates, the prices of gasoline and diesel soar to record highs with no end in sight. Becky Sturdivan feels the pain at the pump. She said she is paying $120 to $200 a week in gas just traveling to and from her home in Jasper to her job in Joplin. She doesn’t have much hope that prices will go down, and said she can only cross her fingers that it doesn’t become so expensive she can’t afford to drive to work anymore. “You practically have to have three jobs just to survive these days,” Sturdivan said Thursday, the day unleaded gasoline prices hit another record high at a national average of $3.64 a gallon. The national average is now $3.67 a gallon. The average price in Missouri on Friday was $3.53 a gallon, according to AAA. Some analysts predict the price will reach $4 a gallon this summer. At least some outlets were posting a price of $3.60 per gallon Friday night in Joplin. Can anything be done to prevent that? The experts say the answer is: “Not likely.’’ Conventional wisdom would suggest that a reduction in consumption brought about by the steep prices paid per gallon would increase the supply of fuel and that, in turn, would bring down the cost. But there is no assurance that will work what with demand for fuel increasing in other parts of the world, particularly India and China. What about a summer moratorium on the federal excise tax on gasoline? That tax amounts to 18.4 cents per gallon for gasoline and 24.4 cents per gallon for diesel. That approach, favored by presidential hopefuls Sens. John McCain and Hillary Clinton, but opposed by Sen. Barack Obama, might provide some psychological, if not actual, relief. To Cathy Kelsey, of Liberal, the potential for 18 cents of every gallon of gasoline she buys going back into her pocket seems like the promise land. “Even if it’s just $50, that’s a lot of money to us poor people,” Kelsey said Thursday. Any extra money would be a welcome relief to senior citizen Della Kennedy, of Webb City, who has been on a fixed income for several years. As gas prices have gone up in recent months, her checks have not. “I don’t even know what I’d spend the extra money on; I just know it would help out,” Kennedy said. But some worry the gas-tax holiday could backfire with higher prices over the long term because the action could trigger an increase in demand. 
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