In the face of gasoline drawing uncomfortably near $4 a gallon, drivers in the Richmond region are trying to find price relief at discount stations, by driving less or improving the efficiency of their cars.
But the world oil market — where the price of crude plunged nearly 9 percent to settle below $100 per barrel Thursday — may be on the verge of stepping in and rolling back gas prices.
"When it goes up to four or five dollars a gallon, we're not going to be able to sustain it," said Richard Whitfield, a retired soldier who lives in Highland Springs. "People around here don't make that kind of money."
And the toll that high fuel prices has been taking on the limping U.S. economy has, in fact, prompted the weakening demand for fuel and the drop in crude oil prices. The benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude oil future price for June settled at $99.80 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
"It's reasonable to see the price go down," said Amy Myers Jaffe, a professor of energy policy at Rice University in Houston. "It's still too high at $100, based on supply and demand fundamentals."
With gas at the Siebert's Shell station on Gaskins Road approaching $4 a gallon, Gov. Bob McDonnell said Thursday that the federal government needs to lift its moratorium on drilling for oil and natural gas off the coast of Virginia.
"The pain at the pump is the result of many factors, one of which is the result of our ongoing dependence on foreign sources of oil," McDonnell said.
According to the AAA Mid-Atlantic auto club, the average price for a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in Richmond on Thursday was $3.88.
Chasing discounts makes little difference. "It ain't nothing to write home about," said Whitfield, who bought $30 worth of gas at $3.839 a gallon for his Ford F-150 pickup at the Sam's Club off South Laburnum Avenue in eastern Henrico.
"I used to get $20," he said, but "it doesn't go that far now."
Still, said Zijing Liu, a 19-year-old student at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College who was buying discount gas at the Sam's Club on West Broad Street, "Sam's Club is a few cents cheaper" than other retailers.
McDonnell stood in front of the large Siebert's service station, convenience store and take-out café in Henrico where customers stopping to fill their tanks vented their frustration. Regular gas at the station was $3.919 cents a gallon.
Latasha Austin, who works for the State Board of Nursing, said, "It's ridiculous. It's getting so you can only go to work and come home."
She had just paid $50 to fill up her Nissan Altima.
Maria Scholte, a stay-at-home mom, said she has begun to plan her day so she drives out only once to run multiple errands in an effort to save gas. She had just put $50 into her Buick, using savings from a Kroger gas card.
Randolph S. Seibert, owner of the station at 3830 Gaskins Road, said he paid $33,000 Thursday for a truckload of gas. A year ago, he paid $23,000.
Retiree Barbara Prieber of Charles City County saw the same picture. Filling her sport utility vehicle's tank near Sandston, "I figure if I wait till tomorrow," Prieber said, "it'll cost me more."
At the governor's brief news conference, after talking up the merits of "domestic energy production from every possible source," McDonnell acknowledged that if the ban on drilling off the Virginia coast were lifted this year, drilling could probably not begin until 2013. That would have little immediate impact on gas prices, he said.
But, he said, oil is still the key. If more offshore drilling had taken place years ago, the U.S. would not be so dependent on foreign oil, which amounts to about 60 percent of this country's oil, he said.
He also released a letter he wrote to President Barack Obama in April urging him to allow offshore lease sales in the 2012-2017 plan of the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. He said he had not heard back from the president.
As he spoke, environmentalists held signs calling for "Windmills not oil spills."
McDonnell acknowledged their presence and said he agreed with them that all alternative energy sources, including wind, must be pursued. But, he said, "we don't have a wind-powered car or a vehicle driven by solar power."
Steve Tolbert, assistant director of the Sierra Club's state chapter, said wind won't solve the gas-price problem but said encouraging more gasoline production "just feeds our addiction" to oil.
Thursday's decline in the world price of oil — from which gasoline is produced — doesn't necessarily mean the trend toward higher gas costs has ended, said Christopher J. Singleton, Kanawha Capital Management LLC's managing director.
Supply is still fragile, particularly because of unrest in the Middle East and North Africa, while the nascent global economic recovery pushes demand, Singleton said.
"Save Gas" urged a sign at Burford's Auto Works on West Broad Street. "Tune Up Now."
Engine tuneups help improve gas mileage, said Burford's owner Steve Rogers.
And, he said, "that tire pressure, it's extremely important."
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