Locals crowd gas stations in fear of shortage

Kevin Ferguson

Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2001 | 9:53 a.m.

Fear of possibly rising gas prices caused by the terrorist attacks in the East Coast led many Southern Nevadans to crowd gas stations Tuesday.

"We got slammed. People were panicking," said Gigi Conover, Union 76 station manager on Lake Mead Drive near downtown Henderson.

While some gas stations in the midwest rose their unleaded gas price to as high as $5 or $6 a gallon, Conover said gas prices in the downtown Henderson area remained fairly steady. Her station kept its unleaded gas price at $1.49.

Tina Carmen, store clerk at the Terrible Herbst station across from the Union 76, said cars were lined up around the corner for most of the evening.

She said the station sold 5,000 gallons during a span in which it usually sells about 1,500 gallons.

Duke Energy raised the price of its wholesale "rack" gasoline, or gasoline in terminals, throughout California and Nevada by 20 cents a gallon, or nearly 25 percent, Bob Patton, vice president for product supply and marketing, told Dow Jones News Service.

Despite the long lines at the pump, Carmen and Conover said most customers were rather civilized.

But in parts of the Midwest where gas prices were spiked by station owners, chaos broke out.

In Topeka, Kan., a 78-year-old man was arrested for aggravated assault after he allegedly pulled a pellet gun on another customer and bumped his car into another to get to a pump.

"We got an e-mail from Oklahoma City saying gas was over $6 a gallon," Ronda Hunter said while waiting in line for gas in western Topeka. "The news said it was jumping to $4 a gallon. Is this madness or what?"

Authorities in Oklahoma were investigating instances of price-gouging, while Mississippi's attorney general, Mike Moore, asked Gov. Ronnie Musgrove to declare a state of emergency, which would allow prosecutors to pursue price-gougers there.

The R and L Texaco in Oklahoma City increased the price of unleaded gasoline to $5 a gallon after a supplier told the owner it was unclear when the next shipment would be available and at what price.

At the Super Pumper Amoco station in Devils Lake, N.D., the price of a gallon of regular unleaded shot up to $3.29, said Luke Leitch, a clerk at the station.

Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said the rising prices across the country were discussed at a Senate briefing Tuesday night, and he said Congress could take action soon to stop price gouging.

"That's the last thing that should be happening," Conrad said.

The nation's largest oil companies tried to allay concerns Tuesday by freezing their prices and pledging to keep distribution steady, but their efforts seemed to have little immediate impact.

Gas prices rose almost immediately in parts of the Midwest, where prices were already high because of distribution bottlenecks.

At Casey's General Store in Galesburg, Ill., the price of gas had climbed to $4 per gallon from $1.68 earlier in the day. In California, gasoline wholesalers raised prices by as much as 20 cents a gallon.

Greg Seiter, a spokesman at the AAA Hoosier Motor Club in Indiana, said his office has received reports of prices rising to $3 and $4 a gallon in parts of Indiana, including Bloomington and Indianapolis.

Though prices were holding steady at about $1.66 for a gallon of regular unleaded at a Get-N-Go store in Sioux Falls, S.D., attendant John Walz said the lines were several cars deep. Motorists waited up to 45 minutes to fill their gas tanks in Toledo, Ohio.

The average price of gasoline late last week, including all grades and taxes, was $1.56 per gallon, according to the Lundberg Survey of 8,000 stations nationwide.

In Washington, the American Petroleum Institute, the industry trade group, issued a statement reassuring motorists that there is no threat of a fuel shortage.