Apr 21, 2006 5:22 am US/Pacific
Pain Of Gas Prices Hitting Home
In Texas, Pawn Shops Find Fuel Crunch A Business Boon
DALLAS (CBS) ―
High gasoline prices are causing some Texas residents to take desperate measures. Pawn shops say their business is increasing, with some customers saying they're selling things to buy gas.
Pumps ran dry at scattered gas stations as fuel terminals and stations struggled to adapt to ethanol in fuel mixes, causing some customers to hark back to widespread gasoline shortages of the past.
Catherine Rossi, a spokeswoman for AAA Mid-Atlantic, said she knew of eight stations in the Philadelphia region that were out of fuel on Thursday.
"There is truly a dearth of supply in the Philly and New York markets today," said Wayne Hummel of Liberty Petroleum L.L.C.
Gas prices are climbing again, with most stations prices hovering at, or just below $3.00 a gallon, reports KTVT-TV.
"We just have customers come in and have to tell us that they need money until the end of the week, for gas to get back and forth to work," said Dallas pawn shop owner, Gerald Costner.
Pawn shop owners say they are seeing it all come in: Everything from high end jewelry, to name brand purses, and televisions. They say customers are frustrated and have no place to go to get extra cash for gas.
"Some of the construction people tell us they are having to pawn their tools to buy gas, but when they pawn their tools they can't go out and work in the construction business because their tools are in pawn. So it kind of a 'catch-22,'" Costner said.
Mary Rodriguez has worked at the Casa View Pawn Shop for five years. She says she's seen people of all ages coming in looking for help.
"We've always had a clientele of the young kids, or middle age kids, and now we're getting an older generation," said Rodriguez . "It just seems wrong that they have to pawn things just to get gas, to make ends meet on things like that."
As prices continue to rise at the pumps, many motorists say they don't see things getting better anytime soon, for the consumer.
"It is frustrating, but the thing is they know they can get away with it, because people need gas," Rodriguez said.
At Casa View Pawn, the owner says they have seen the increase in numbers during the past couple months.
Catherine Rossi, a spokeswoman for AAA Mid-Atlantic, said she knew of eight stations in the Philadelphia region that were out of fuel on Thursday.
"There is truly a dearth of supply in the Philly and New York markets today," said Wayne Hummel of Liberty Petroleum L.L.C.
Four of the 40 stations Liberty supplies in the Philadelphia region ran out of fuel in the last two days as its tanker trucks made futile trips from terminal to terminal, Hummel said.
Jai Kulkarni, owner of a Kwik Farms convenience store and a Lukoil station, said he was out of gas for about four hours on Wednesday, losing about $200 an hour in sales.
At the station Thursday, Vinnie Zambuto, 31, of Coatesville, said he never saw a gas station run dry before he encountered one last week.
But Zambuto said he had heard tales from his parents of gas shortages of the 1970s, and hoped the current supply stumbles would be short-lived.
In Norfolk, Virginia and Virginia Beach yesterday, some gas stations only had premium gas to sell. Others had "no gas" signs posted. Steve Leisten, a manager with petroleum supplier PAPCO, told CBS News it could be several weeks before inventory levels are back to normal.
Refiners are switching to fuel formulations containing corn-based ethanol, prompted by the federal Energy Policy Act of 2005, and ethanol's affinity for water requires extensive work both at fuel terminals and the service stations themselves.
Retailers must clean their tanks, remove all water and install extremely fine filters on their pumps. Terminals have to clean tanks to store the ethanol and install equipment to blend it with the gasoline.
Independent gasoline distributors said few terminals had gasoline on Thursday. A Pacific Energy Partners L.P. terminal that did was filling trucks in only two of its five lanes, with waiting times of four hours. "We are doing our best to activate the others," said Jennifer Shigei, a company spokeswoman.
Refiners declined to go into detail about the supply situation, but Shannon Breuer, a spokeswoman for Sunoco Inc., said the company was "focused on being a reliable supplier" and was confident any problems would be short-term.
AAA warned that supply disruptions could continue for the next few weeks, however, as terminals and stations deal with the new blends, and that could drive soaring pump prices still higher.
The shortages come on a day when there is also a new record for oil prices.
On Friday, oil prices briefly jumped to $73 a barrel for the first time.
At pumps around the nation, a gallon of gas is up 30 cents over the last
month, CBS News reports.
The average gasoline price has already jumped 22 percent to $2.85 a gallon in the Philadelphia area since the latest upturn early in March, and 18 percent to $2.71 in southern New Jersey in the past month, AAA said.
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