Gas jumps 8 cents in a week

The cost of driving went up again Monday at 12:30 p.m.

A clerk stood on tiptoe at the price sign in front of an Exxon station on U.S. 70 in Garner, reached up for a number "6" and turned it into a "9." That easy flip added 3 cents to the price of regular.

"It's unreal," said Loru Hawley, 40, a wine sales representative who lives in Angier. She was the last customer to pay the old price, $3.669 a gallon.

"All around this place are different prices," Hawley said. "I just came from Capital Boulevard, and they're as high as $3.79 already. Two days ago they were $3.63. I go all over trying to find the best buy, and everybody is just skyrocketing.

"There's really no best buy anymore."

Triangle drivers paid an average $3.696 for regular Monday, up more than 8 cents in the past week. Gas costs 36 cents more than it did at this point three years ago, in the spring of 2008, the last time prices were high and rising this fast. Late that summer, local average prices hit a record $4.058.

Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for New Jersey-based Oil Price Information Service, revised his price forecast upward last week. Now he sees a 50 percent chance that pump prices will reach $4 a gallon this year.

Government and industry experts say that unrest in North Africa and the Middle East has squeezed oil supplies and prompted speculators to push petroleum prices higher. Crude oil futures dipped below $111 a barrel Monday, but economists still expect that recent increases will add 10 cents to gas prices over the next couple of weeks.

And there are signs that Americans are starting to drive less, as they did in the spring and summer of 2008. Unemployment numbers have declined, so more people must be driving to work, - but The Associated Press reports that MasterCard says gas sales have fallen for the past five weeks.

Hawley is trying to cut back on her driving without cutting service to her customers. Lately she has restaurants call in their wine orders, so she won't need to visit them quite so often. She does what she can to avoid wasting gas, keeping her engine oil fresh and her tires pumped full.

"We've got to drill oil on our coast," Hawley said. "We've got to get back to American-made, instead of going over into the Middle East."

Still, Hawley and other Triangle drivers seem to have gotten past the shock of pump prices surging toward $4.

"I don't know if I'm used to it, but I know we've been here before, so it's not as big a shock," said Michael DePersia, 29, of Morrisville, who filled up Monday at a Shell station in South Raleigh. "It's still in recent memory."

DePersia drives a lot in his commercial real estate job - he'd been in Greenville that morning - and knows he should reduce his driving.

"But I'm not doing it, to be honest with you," he said. "I'm trying, but I've still got to get around."

Garner retiree Jimmy Wilkins, 73, is busy, too. He frowned Monday at news that he was the first customer to pay the new, higher price of $3.699 at the Exxon station near his home.

Then he shrugged.

"I've got two cars and a wife who stays on the go," Wilkins said. "We're very active in the church, visit a lot of sick folks. I'm on the way down to the church house now. We're glad we're able to stay on the go. But we pay the price."