Cory Kammerzell watched the numbers zip by on the gasoline pump at a Lake Stevens Chevron station, where regular unleaded sold for $2.95 a gallon this week. Premium gas was going for well over $3.
Niki Desautels / The Herald
Drivers filling up at the station stared intently at the pump readouts as their totals swiftly added up.
“I think it’s ridiculous how much it costs these days. It keeps rising, rising and rising,” said Kammerzell, 19, as he finished filling up his Chevrolet Cavalier LS.
Gas seems destined to keep rising, as crude oil hit a record $75 a barrel on Friday and prices at an increasing number of gas stations zeroed in on $3 a gallon.
In the Everett area, the highest price on Friday for regular unleaded was $3.20 a gallon at the Spirit gas station in Lake Stevens. A few other stations listed prices at $3, but most were charging between $2.85 and $2.90. In Marysville, the Arco just off I-5 on Fourth Street was charging $2.80.
Prices at some stations changed from Thursday by as much as 8 cents a gallon.
The average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gas in the Seattle-Bellevue-Everett area rose nearly 4 cents – from $2.85 to just under $2.89 – from Thursday to Friday, according to AAA.
That’s just 3 cents below the region’s all-time high, not adjusted for inflation, set in September.
“I suspect early next week, if not before, we could set the new record,” said Janet Ray, AAA’s spokeswoman in Bellevue. “By tomorrow, it could be that high, I don’t know.”
She said oil analysts who briefed AAA officials this week said the run-up in prices wasn’t based solely on supply-and-demand issues. Speculation on the commodity markets about world events, from a possible war with Iran to growing demand for fuel, was a major factor.
In a speech before he departed for the International Energy Forum in Qatar, U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said Friday that he saw no simple way to bring down crude oil costs.
“I wish there were a magic wand I could wave that would cause prices to decline,” Bodman said. “There isn’t one. We’re continuing to deal with the same issues we’ve been dealing with – suppliers having a hard time keeping up with demand.”
Adding to the woes this week were fuel shortages at some stations in the Northeast, as fuel distributors switch over from gasoline with the additive methyl tertiary-butyl ether, or MTBE, to more environmentally friendly ethanol.
Rising oil and gas costs are rippling through a number of industries, driving up transportation costs for goods and the cost of anything made with petroleum. This week, Eastman Kodak said higher oil prices are forcing it to raise prices on film between 3 percent and 17 percent beginning May 1.
Closer to home, Snohomish-based Find It Games is encountering higher costs for the plastic pellets and tubes used in its treasure hunt-themed toys.
“My plastic costs have doubled during the last year,” said Bob Knight, Find It’s president. “It’s affecting us big-time.”
His shipping and transportation costs also have gone up with rising gasoline and diesel prices. So far, Knight has dealt with it by cutting other production costs rather than raising his product costs, he said.
Back at the Lake Stevens gas station, Kammerzell said he has changed his habits as gasoline nears $3 a gallon for the second time in a 12-month period. He previously used midgrade or premium fuel in his car. No more. He’s also thinking twice about taking long trips these days.
“Just can’t drive anywhere because it costs so much,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@ heraldnet.com.
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