Fuel Frustration: Prices Soar At The Pump
DETROIT (WWJ) - Metro Detroit motorists hitting the road over the weekend were flabbergasted to find gas prices had jumped 30 to 40 cents per gallon overnight.
At a Warren Marathon station along Ryan near Chicago Road, patrons used to finding some of the cheapest price in the area were shocked on Sunday to see $4.11 a gallon for regular, cash only -- and a whopping $4.15 for those paying with credit.
Surveying the situation Monday morning, WWJ's Ron Dewey reported that things weren't looking much better -- with many local service stations struggling to stay below $4 per gallon -- charging $3.99.
"That $4 price point just has a psychological effect on people. But you better be ready to use cash and not your credit card," Dewey advised.
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Filling up on the way to work, Quinton King of Detroit was not happy about it.
"I work for McDonald's, sir. I work for minimum wage and it keeps putting a hit on my wallet," King said. "Hopefully it will go down. Oil price or something need to hurry up and go down, because this is ridiculous."
AAA Michigan spokesperson Nancy Cain told WWJ Newsradio 950 that it appears to be an issue at one of the oil refineries.
"You know the midwest - we've been plagued with a lot of refinery problems," said Cain. "Whether it's the BP ... facility in Indiana or the Exxon Mobil Joliet refinery in Illinois and we've had other problems too ... it appears it is a refinery problem somewhere, somewhere there is a supply issue.
Cain said refineries are competitive and generally don't like to reveal the details of any problems.
At a gas station along Telegraph Road, Harold Cheatham and a friend weren't letting the high gas prices keep them from their fishing trip on Lake Erie.
"It ain't bother me, I've got my man right here," he said, gesturing to his buddy in the passenger seat. "He got money ... it don't bother us. We got to go, we got to go!"
"But I don't care for it," Cheatham added. "They can't make no excuse for it, so I don't know. I mean, why aren't the politicians saying nothing about it?"
Cheatham says it's time for the government to step in and freeze prices.
