Rising gas prices crimp lifestyles

Associated Press

A driver prepares to fill his car with fuel at a gas station in San Francisco, where motorists are paying the nation's highest price for self-serve regular gasoline. Supply problems in California have helped push up the average price of gasoline in the past two weeks as many motorists begin cutting back on driving. Associated Press

Michael Giles said he stopped volunteering at The Salvation Army to avoid driving his 1990 Chrysler Imperial, which gets 22 miles per gallon.

"I'm retired and live on a pension, so I'm always pinching pennies," said Giles, 61, as he filled his tank in Los Angeles. "I can't volunteer anymore, and so somebody is suffering from that. I suffer because that used to give me something to do."

The average price for gas nationally, including all grades and taxes, reached about $1.75 a gallon yesterday, the Lundberg Survey of 8,000 stations nationwide reported. The survey's record is $1.77, recorded in May 2001.

Giles and other Californians are paying the nation's highest prices, with the average reaching nearly $2.06 a gallon yesterday for unleaded regular, according to AAA auto club's retail gasoline survey.

Charles Robinson, 59, of Kansas City, Mo., began cutting back his driving two weeks ago and now uses his car only for essential trips to the grocery store or the doctor or to pay bills. Unleaded regular averaged $1.63 a gallon yesterday in Kansas and $1.59 in Missouri, according to AAA.

"Everything came to a halt," Robinson said. "It's too much money for too little gas."

The effects of the high prices extend beyond the car owners, said Jack Kyser, chief economist at the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp.

For poorer people, "it probably means fewer trips to the mall, fewer trips out for the family to eat," Kyser said. "So this is going to ripple out through the economy."

Diesel fuel also is more expensive.

Fresno trucker Ricky Dunn, 46, said he is struggling to make ends meet at home because he is spending around $700 more each month for diesel for his truck, and that eats into his profits.

"I stay home more now," he said. "Last time, I filled just enough to get home from the barbershop. I was watching the (gas gauge) hand all the way home."

Roger Monay estimated he spent up to $300 in the past month to fuel his van for the 70-mile commute from his Lancaster home to work in Los Angeles.

"I couldn't take it anymore, so just yesterday I bought a used, four-cylinder car — a Ford Mustang," he said.

Meanwhile, OPEC will increase its oil production and possibly even suspend its output quotas to keep the world supplied with ample supplies of crude in the event of a war with Iraq, the group's president said yesterday.

Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries can pump an additional 3 million to 4 million barrels of fresh oil a day, and they are prepared to exhaust this spare production capacity if a war seriously disrupts exports from the Persian Gulf, said OPEC President Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah.

OPEC's secretary general and oil ministers from Iran, Algeria and Venezuela played down the possibility that the group might suspend its output ceiling, currently set at 24.5 million barrels a day. Al-Attiyah indicated he favors a greater degree of flexibility, without actually endorsing a temporary suspension.

"OPEC will do the most it can to avoid any shock in the market," he told reporters ahead of a policy meeting today at OPEC headquarters in Vienna, Austria.

OPEC, which pumps about a third of the world's crude, is exceeding its target as members cash in on prices that have soared to 12-year highs amid fears of a war-induced supply shortage from Iraq.