Friday, March 28, 2003 | 11 a.m.
Nevada drivers aren't the only ones not getting the answers they want about gasoline prices. Attorney General Brian Sandova said Thursday that oil companies had not responded to his request for explanations.
Nevada's average gasoline price is the third highest in the nation, and Sandoval sent letters to 13 companies more than 10 days ago asking them to justify what he sees as a recent spike in gasoline prices. He set a deadline of today for a response.
The companies "have been less than responsive," Sandoval's spokesman, Tom Sargent, said.
Sandoval followed up with a reminder letter Wednesday. Sargent said Sandoval does not intend to be "blown off" by the oil companies.
His letter this week warned that "Nevadans expect that this office will either take action or provide a reasonable explanation for what is apparently inexplicable market behavior."
Sandoval also wrote that he planned to schedule face-to-face meetings to get answers if he doesn't hear from the companies by today.
"As I suggested before, consumer complaints and media attention suggest that there is much doubt as to gas prices rising due to bona fide market conditions," Sandoval said.
He said there have been recent reports that point to "reductions in crude prices with no corresponding downstream effect upon pump prices."
Sandoval's office has been flooded with consumers' complaints about gas prices. Some Nevadans say it makes no sense to them that gas is cheaper in Utah even though some of that state's supply goes through Nevada to get to Utah filling stations.
Jenny Mack, AAA Nevada spokeswoman, said the main reasons gas prices are higher in Nevada than just across the state line in Utah are higher gas taxes here and because Nevada gets all of its gas from California refineries whereas Utah does not.
Higher environmental standards in California mean the refineries there must produce cleaner burning gas, which adds to the cost, Mack said.
Some of Utah's gasoline supply comes from refineries in Wyoming and elsewhere, Mack said.
The price difference is also affected by the different tax rates on gas.
Not including federal gas taxes, the Nevada gas tax is 33.3 cents per gallon, and in Utah the tax is 24.5 cents per gallon, Ron Planting, an analyst with the American Petroleum Institute, said. The Washington-based institute represents the gas and oil industry and suppliers. In California, where the gas tax is 32 cents per gallon, the requirements and regulations of the refining process also have a significant impact on the price of gasoline, Planting said. But he did not know exactly how much the more expensive process ends up costing consumers.
Swings in the price of a barrel of crude oil can take two to five weeks or longer to move the prices at the gas pump, Planting said.
"It takes time for the markets to adjust," he said.
Planting said crude oil prices began rising in November and the cost of gasoline started rising in December.
Recently, though, the price of crude oil has dropped. On March 12 a barrel of crude oil was $38, and on Thursday it was about $30.37 a barrel, he said.
But the higher price of two weeks ago is still being felt at the pump, he said.
Jessica Russell, a Henderson resident who moved to the area from Washington two months ago and got a job delivering pizzas in her car, was feeling it Thursday. And it hurt.
"I make a lot in tips but then I lose it in gas," she said after filling up at a Chevron station at Green Valley Parkway and Sunset Road.
A few minutes earlier, wildlife and nature photographer Greg Hoffman was also upset about spending $2.04 a gallon. But he saw the price as part of a larger problem.
"This whole war is about petroleum," he said. "It's one petroleum lord against another petroleum lord. Innocent people get killed and we're paying the high prices at the pumps."
He also blamed the oil companies for the spike in prices.
"I think it's American greed," the photographer said. "Everybody's trying to make a million dollars instead of getting together and deciding not to raise prices above a certain level."
Over at a Chevron station on Maryland Parkway and Tropicana Road, Corey Justus, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas secondary education student, had just spent his last $3 on gas.
"They say the cost of a barrel of oil is dropping $10 to $15, but you don't see it at the pumps," he said. "These companies charge this much because they know they can."
Some people spoke of changing plans and habits due to the prices at the pumps.
"I try to make my trips more organized and not drive around so much," said Lorree Bayiatis, a Realtor and Las Vegas native.
Felix Gomez, who was filling up at Costco in Henderson at the end of a week-long visit from Long Beach, Calif. -- where gas prices are even higher -- said he might change his travel plans the next time he visits Las Vegas.
"If prices keep going up, it might be cheaper to fly," he said. "But then the money you save on the gas, you lose in the casinos."
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