🚀 go-pugleaf

Leave it to a slimy politician to blame the high price of gasoline on the
few cents it costs to have less polluting fuel. How come the govenor
show the same concern over the epidemic in Asthma hospitalizations?
How come the governor doesn't ask for less govenment taxes on gas?

Bring back Al Capone in Illinois, he was more humane.

Bill Mulcahy, Editor of the Aviation Conspiracy Newsletter
 http://pages.prodigy.net/rockaway/ACNewsmenu.htm

Pumped up over gas prices

by Political Editor Dick Kay

CHICAGO, June 13 - Federal regulators are investigating high gasoline prices
in the Chicago and Milwaukee areas.

         While they search for answers the heat is on local politicians to
do something about it. There is a proposal pending in the City Council to
cut the local gas tax, and U.S. Senator Peter Fitzgerald says state
lawmakers should meet in special session to cut state gas taxes.
    Gas prices in the Chicago area vary from station to station, and can go
up 10 cents a gallon one day and down two cents the next.
    Because Illinois allows a sales tax on motor fuel, higher prices mean a
tax windfall for the city and state.
    For instance, last year at this time the average motorist in Chicago was
paying a sales tax of about 8.75% a gallon. That would be 5% for the state
and 3.75% in city and county sales taxes.
    With gas prices almost double over last year, Chicago motorists are now
paying about 14% a gallon, with 8% to the state and 6% to the city and
county.
    None of the increases were budgeted. So why not cut the taxes?
    "I'm not sure that's possible," added Governor Ryan. "It would take an
act of the General Assembly...It would take about a $380 million hit on
general revenue, and we decided we couldn't do it."
    While Gov. Ryan would need legislative approval for sales tax cuts,
Mayor Daley could get city council approval to cut the city's gas sales tax
in a matter of weeks.
    State Representative Richard Winkel is planning a series of hearings
around the state on gas prices in Illinois.
    Governor Ryan says there are options to tax cuts, such as the release of
oil reserves, convincing OPEC to produce more oil, or getting a waiver from
the EPA on reformulated gas for Chicago.

    MONDAY MEETING
    A meeting Monday at EPA headquarters, attended by officials from about a
half dozen oil companies, was closed, although agency officials were
expected to brief reporters afterward.
    "We're suspicious of gouging," EPA spokesman Dave Cohen said.
    Gasoline prices have increased nationwide in recent weeks with the
beginning of the heavy summer driving season but soared in some parts of the
Midwest - especially Illinois and Wisconsin - by as much as 30 to 50 cents a
gallon.
    In some areas, gasoline prices have skyrocketed to more than $2 a gallon
in a matter of a few weeks.
    Much of the increase has been attributed to the requirement for a new
blend of cleaner burning "reformulated gasoline" required in areas with
severe smog problems around the country.

    SEVERE HIKES
    But EPA officials said they were puzzled as to why the price difference
between conventional and the cleaner burning gasoline was as wide as it has
been and why the price hikes in the West were particularly severe.
    "There are inexplicable price differentials between RFG (reformulated
gasoline) and conventional gasoline, especially considering the modest
difference in the relative cost of producing RFG as compared to conventional
gasoline," Robert Perciasepe, the EPA's assistant administrator for air
pollution, wrote the industry representatives.

 Who's to blame for new gas hike?

    Perciasepe said that all agency information indicates that the price
difference between the two types of gasoline should be modest, no more than
7 to 10 cents a gallon.
    According to the Energy Department, the average price of all grades of
gasoline in areas requiring reformulated gasoline nationwide was $1.67 a
gallon on June 5., about a dime more a gallon than gasoline sold in other
parts of the country.
    The average price in the Midwest for the cleaner gasoline was $1.83
cents a gallon, compared to $1.56 on the East Coast and $1.60 cents on the
West Coast, according to the department's statistical agency.
    Motorists in the Chicago and Milwaukee areas - two of 15 urban areas
around the country required to use the cleaner burning gasoline because of
pollution problems - have been paying as much as $2 a gallon with premium
grades even higher.
    Meanwhile, supplies of reformulated gasoline were lower than at the same
time a year ago when a different blend was required. Beginning this month,
stocks of reformulated gasoline were at 41.4 million barrels, about 3.3
million barrels less than at the same time a year ago. Stocks in the
Midwest, however, were 2 million barrels, slightly more than at the same
time a year ago, according to the Energy Department.

    PROBE SOUGHT
    Last week, Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., asked the head of the Federal Trade
Commission to investigate whether oil companies or retailers were engaged in
illegal price gouging since the price increases in some cases were much
greater than had been expected from the requirement of the new gasoline.
      Environmental groups also have questioned why the cleaner burning
gasoline should cause such a sudden price increase in the Midwest. The new
gasoline was required in severe pollution areas beginning June 1, but oil
companies had begun putting the gasoline into the pipeline a month earlier.
    "The oil companies have known for five years that they would have to
sell the cleaner burning gasoline by June 1. Why didn't the industry plan
for known supply needs," said Frank O'Donnell of the Clean Air Trust, an
environmental advocacy group.
    It remains uncertain to what extent the high prices at the pump will
affect people's summer travel plans.
    A CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll, conducted June 6-7, found Americans very
divided on that question. Of 1,059 people surveyed, 52 percent said the
higher prices so far have not affect their driving habits or vacation plans.
But 48 percent said they have been affected. The poll had a 4 to 5
percentage point margin of error.


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