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| Wednesday, April 12, 2006 | (No comments posted.)
Times Staff and Wire Reports
Escalating fuel prices aren't curbing drive time in the Chicago area and won't dampen summer travel plans, according to AAA Chicago.
The Monthly Fuel Report, released today by AAA Chicago, shows the average fuel price for regular unleaded in Lake County for the past 30 days, was $2.67 per gallon compared with $2.21 per gallon one year ago. The monthly fuel report tracks the average price of regular unleaded gasoline from mid-month to mid-month.
The same report shows the average fuel price for Cook County was $2.83 during the past 30 days, compared with $2.41 one year ago.
"If you look at trends through 2005, we had record (fuel) prices, but numbers were also up for travel," AAA Chicago spokeswoman Nicole Niemi said. "We expect this trend to continue. Fuel frequently is a small part of a family's budget."
Niemi said officials know an increase of 40 or 50 cents a gallon isn't enough to keep people home this holiday weekend.
She said AAA hasn't studied how high prices would have to be in order to significantly alter driving habits.
When it comes to summer travel, Niemi said if a family is spending thousands of dollars to travel to Disney World, fuel consumption is a small part of the budget. High gas prices won't make them completely change their plans, she said. Sometimes people will plan to travel to a nearby state, such as Michigan, rather than drive across the country, but generally people don't forgo a vacation altogether, she said.
The price of crude oil has increased significantly, and worldwide demand for fuel is increasing, particularly in places such as China where previously there wasn't such a high demand, Niemi said.
As the warm weather months approach, an annual factor impacting summer fuel price is the increased cost of refining "summer blend" fuel. The reformulated fuel blend burns cleaner and is better for the environment, Niemi said.
On the national scale, some places are seeing fuel prices surpassing $3 a gallon. Demand this summer is expected to be higher than last year because drivers aren't expected to ease off on their mileage.
The Energy Department says it expects the price of regular unleaded to average $2.62 a gallon, 25 cents more than last summer, during the April to September driving period. But prices across the country already are above that.
Guy Caruso, head of the Energy Department's statistical agency, said prices at the pump, which averaged $2.68 a gallon last week nationwide, are likely to increase 10 to 15 cents a gallon in the coming weeks, peak in May and drop off in late summer. He said the national average can mask local price spikes.
"We assume normal weather," Caruso added. If a hurricane or a refinery outage causes supply problems, or if crude oil takes a major jump, prices will be higher yet.
Crude oil climbed higher than $69 a barrel Tuesday to the highest level this year before easing back somewhat. Wholesale gasoline for delivery in May was a shade more than $2 a gallon, 29 percent higher than a year ago.
But Caruso, sharing the view of AAA, said motorists are not expected to cut back on their summer driving.
In fact, motorists are expected to use 1.5 percent more gasoline than last summer.
Gas prices last week were 40 percent higher than the same week a year ago and are likely to rise more as higher crude oil and wholesale gasoline costs move through the system, Caruso said.
Supplies are expected to be adequate, barring a major disruption, although some regions, especially the East Coast, may have to rely more on gasoline imports, the Energy Department said.
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