ShareThisBy GILBERT CHAN
As Brian Lacey began filling up his sedan, he glanced at the price displayed on the gasoline pump and in mock amazement declared: "I'm thankful for paying under $3 a gallon."
The 29-year-old Sacramento, Calif., social worker then paused. "But look at it," he said, pointing to the $2.89-a-gallon price at the Shell service station. "It's ridiculous."
Lacey echoed the sentiments of many consumers who are ending the busy summer travel season with mixed news at the pumps.
While the 3.9 million California motorists hitting the highways this Labor Day weekend are catching a break at the pump, they are still paying more than a year ago.
Statewide, the average price for regular gasoline has dropped 6 cents to $3.10 a gallon in the past week, according to the California Energy Commission. That's the good news. The bad: That's nearly 33 cents a gallon more than a year ago.
In the Sacramento area, motorists on Thursday paid an average of $2.98 a gallon, 12 cents less than a month ago, according to AAA of Northern California. But that's 17 cents more than last year.
"Anytime it goes down, it's good," said Taunyana Sanchez, a nurse who is moving to Chico from South Dakota. Overall, though, she said, "it's bad. I remember living in Seattle and complaining it was $1.75."
Energy experts predict prices could slide another 15 cents a gallon this fall as vacation travel winds down.
"We'll continue to see prices come down. There were some naysayers saying we would see a 10- to 20-cent increase (in August)," said Rob Schlichting, spokesman for the California Energy Commission. "We do see a drop in sales of gasoline in the fall. That should further help bring down the (retail) prices."
Three weeks ago, some analysts predicted California gas prices could surge as high as $4 a gallon after BP PLC shut down crude oil shipments from Alaska's Prudhoe Bay because of pipeline corrosion.
But "the BP shutdown was smaller than anticipated, and there were sufficient supplies to cover that," said Severin Borenstein of the University of California Energy Institute in Berkeley.
At the same time, a relatively mild hurricane season along the Gulf Coast and easing tensions in the Middle East have driven crude oil prices down by about $6 a barrel in recent weeks. That has brought down gasoline prices by some 15 cents a gallon, experts said.
The state reported Wednesday that crude supplies in California rose 9 percent to 15.4 million barrels for the week ending Aug. 25. That's 1.7 percent more than the same time last year.
"Things didn't turn out to be as bad as people were expecting," said AAA spokesman Sean Comey. While prices have dropped in the past month, "we are still paying more than we were last year."
Despite the steep prices, consumers continued to hit the highways this summer - although many took shorter trips to stretch their vacation budgets, AAA said.
Over the three-day Labor Day weekend, the auto club predicts motor travel will increase 1.1 percent from last year.
Nationally, 34.8 million U.S. motorists expect to take to the road, up 1.2 percent from 2005.
"People are still planning to take a vacation. They may not go as far," Comey said.
Indeed, Lacey cut back camping trips and visits to Lake Tahoe this summer. "I didn't take as many weekend trips as I used to take."
While Elk Grove mortgage broker Kevin Seymour didn't skip the Tahoe vacation this summer, he said, he trimmed back the spontaneous trips to the Bay Area.
"Sixty-five bucks to fill up a tank is expensive," Seymour said, as he refueled his sport-utility vehicle in Sacramento. "You have to pay the price. Life just goes on."
