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Gas price drops a little As steep as gas pump prices seem, they're about 15 cents cheaper than a year ago. AAA reported Wednesday that regular unleaded was selling for $1.703 in the Medford-Ashland market, slightly less than Tuesday. The price was $1.865 last year, cresting at $1.878 on Sept. 16. The state average is $1.743 while gas is selling for $1.66 across the Columbia River in Vancouver, Wash. Attorney General Hardy Myers said Wednesday he has opened an investigation into reported price increases at Oregon gas stations in the wake of terrorist attacks on the East Coast. "Dealers charging excessive and unjustified prices for gasoline with consumers having little choice but to purchase will not be tolerated," Myers said. Myers said that within hours of the terrorist attacks in New York City and against the Pentagon, his consumer hot line was "jammed with calls from residents" who complained about "huge increases" in gasoline prices. Still, some observers said gas prices actually went down overnight. There was a report of one Medford service station, the Texaco north of Rogue Valley Mall, running out of gas on Tuesday night. The Olympic pipeline in Washington, which supplies Oregon, was shut down temporarily on Tuesday as a security measure in light of the attacks, exacerbating an already tight supply situation in the Northwest due to refinery maintenance, said Elliott Eki, spokesman for AAA Oregon /Idaho. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.