Consumers frustrated by gas price hike

By Kirk Starratt

kstarratt@kentvilleadvertiser.ca

NovaNewsNow.com

Some people feel any excuse will do these days when it comes to rationalizing gasoline price increases. Local consumers voiced frustration Saturday morning and gas station employees in New Minas described hectic scenes with up to quarter-hour waits at the pumps the night before. The price of a litre of regular self serve gasoline shot up by 14 cents to $1.452 at midnight Friday.

Provincial officials used the interrupter clause for extreme market conditions to increase the price, which had dropped by one cent earlier Friday. Most areas of the country saw a 13-cent-per-litre price increase that day.

Provincial gas regulators met Friday afternoon to reconsider the earlier one-cent price decrease. This came in the wake of a hurricane approaching Texas and refineries in the region scaling back operations.

A Kentville resident who was at the Petro Canada station in New Minas Saturday morning said she was around Friday night and noticed how busy the pumps were. At another station in the village, she said, the cars were lined up on to the street as people raced to fill up. She said some were even honking their horns and one person who was parked in the middle was visible furious over not being able to get to a pump.

“I was pretty shocked to see the sign this morning,” she said about the new price, recognizing that the increase puts a tangible strain on everyone’s pocket book, especially people on fixed incomes and single-parent families.

“Why do they have to jack our price up?” she said, pointing out that the southern refineries affected by adverse weather conditions don’t supply our gasoline.

Another man filling up in New Minas Saturday morning said he saw all the vehicles lined up for gas the night before but the possibility of such a significant price increase hadn’t donned on him.

He said the price of oil came down to about $100 per barrel last week but the price of gas only came down one cent per litre before the price hike. He believes this is all a strategy to justify keeping the price of furnace oil high because of the impending home heating season.

“They only do it because they can do it,” he said about the increase. “What can you do, quit driving?”

Greyson Sturgeon, a full-serve ambassador at the New Minas Petro Canada, said business didn’t really pick up Friday night until about 9 p.m. However, between 6 a.m. and 2 p.m. Friday, he counted 701 gas customers. At points Friday night, there was a 15-minute wait at some pumps.

“Fifty dollars was getting 35 to 37 litres,” he said. “Today, it’s 32.”

New Minas Petro Canada shift supervisor Karen Reeves said when she arrived Friday evening around 7 p.m., people were already lined up with two or three cars at each pump. She heard the reason for the price jump was Hurricane Ike passing through the Texas region, affecting production at refineries there. She said she heard so many complaints about the increase that she thought she was going to need earplugs.