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Gas-cost discontent reaches to Portland By DAVID PRESZLER Southern Oregon residents are far from the only ones pitching a fit about gas pump prices. The gas gripes stretch up and down the Interstate 5 corridor, as do the high prices that have drawn drivers' ire in recent weeks. And Rogue Valley drivers don't appear to be paying more than anyone else in the state. For example, the Chevron on the corner of Fifth Street and Burnside Avenue in downtown Portland was charging $1.56 for regular unleaded on Sunday. And down the freeway in Wilsonville, it was $1.55 at Chevron and $1.45 at a nearby Shell station. "It just keeps going up," said Brian Brucker of Wilsonville, after paying $24.50 to have 15.7 gallons of regular unleaded into his Ford Windstar at the Chevron. "It's up everywhere." "It's terrible," said Maya Brachmann, a University of Oregon student who commutes from Drain to Eugene each day in her Subaru. ``I used to fill up my car for $14, now it's $20." From Portland, Salem and Eugene to Roseburg, Canyonville and Grants Pass, prices for regular unleaded at most stations ranged from $1.45 to $1.56, a sampling of stations along the I-5 corridor found. Of the 16 stations checked between Portland and Grants Pass, the lowest price found was off the Highway 22 exit in Salem, where the Space Age Quik Mart was asking $1.38 a gallon for regular unleaded. Prices aren't much different around Medford. At the Arco AM/PM off South Pacific Highway, Monday's price was $1.45. At the Astro off Riverside Avenue, prices Monday were lowered 2 cents to $1.47 a gallon. At the Texaco off the Valley View Road exit in Ashland, unleaded was $1.57 a gallon. Prices are even higher if you head into California. At Miner Street Station in Yreka, regular unleaded is $1.75 a gallon. At the Arco AM/PM off Oasis Road near Redding, regular unleaded is going for $1.65 a gallon; and at the Chevron on Hilltop Drive, it's $1.77. Though the rapid rise in prices has annoyed drivers, the real cost of gas -- when adjusted for inflation -- is still pretty low, according to economists. "You were paying a $1.50 in 1970s," said John Mitchell, a leading Northwest economist who works for U.S. Bank. With the current increases, prices in Southern Oregon actually have outpaced inflation slightly, if you use pre-oil embargo numbers, according to Dan Rubenson, an economics professor at Southern Oregon University. Assuming an average current price of $1.50 per gallon, he compared today's prices to 1973's pre-embargo average of 38.8 cents a gallon. That shows an increase of 5.3 annually, a tenth of a point higher than the 5.2 percent that consumer prices in general have risen. Of course, after the oil embargo caused prices to triple later in 1973, the numbers don't apply. Today's Business Index Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA