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Chattanooga: $3 gas projected for area

By: Adelaide Bratcher
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By: Brian Lazenby
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Randy Bly

Once the Chattanooga area’s fuel supply situation stabilizes, gasoline prices should drop to around $3 a gallon, industry officials said.

Staff Photo by Margaret Fenton Patrons fill up at SPUR gas station on Dayton Blvd. Monday afternoon.

Randy Bly, community relations director at AAA Auto Club South, said the supplies that were diminished in the Southeast by Hurricanes Ike and Gustav are almost back to normal, and the price at the pump has already begun to drop.

“Once the fuel supply imbalance is over, the price should really come down,” he said. “There are areas of the country already below the $3 mark.”

Those areas include Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma, but Mr. Bly said it is only a matter of time before the prices get to that point here.

But in Georgia, nearly 150 gas stations are having to defend why they charged high prices after the hurricanes made fuel scarce over the month of September, according to the Associated Press.

The state has subpoenaed sales records from businesses following complaints from 1,500 customers angry over what they were paying at the pump.

Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service, said gas prices will hit a one-year low.

“I believe that $3 or less at the pump will be a common price within the next few weeks,” he said. “This month will bring the first year-on-year decreases in retail gasoline prices since 2006. At some point in October, what you pay will be less than what you paid on the same day in October 2007.”

Mr. Bly said the the high demand is keeping the price high in the Southeast, but supplies already are much improved.

“It’s just going to take a while,” he said. “It looks like areas that were hard hit are still up a little bit.”

According to the Oil Price Information Service, the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded in Chattanooga on Wednesday was 33 cents higher than the U.S. average and 24 cents higher than the statewide average.

But the price here is 2 cents cheaper than on Tuesday, the report shows.

Area gas suppliers said they have already seen a big difference in the amount of fuel available to them, and some gas station operators are reporting an end to the shortage.

Shanta Chaudhari, assistant manager at Kanku’s, said her station at 7640 East Brainerd Road has all grades of fuel, and she isn’t expecting to run out again any time soon.

“Last week was bad, but now it is going back to normal,” she said.

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