After two months of climbing prices that have pushed up the average price of regular gas by 40 cents a gallon in Chattanooga, local motorists got a slight reprieve at the pump last month as fuel prices fell by 0.7 cents a gallon to $2.38 a gallon, or 21 cents a gallon less than the U.S. average.
According to GasBuddy.com survey of 170 Chattanooga stations, the cheapest station in the Chattanooga area on Monday was priced at $2.25 per gallon at the Murphy USA station in Cleveland and for $2.27 per gallon at the BP station in Soddy Daisy and the Mapco Express station in Sale Creek.
Gas prices in Chattanooga are 22.1 cents per gallon higher than a month ago, yet stand 2.7 cents per gallon lower than a year ago.
“There’s no fooling motorists, gas prices have continued to surge,” said Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy. “The run-up this spring has felt worse than prior years, and thus far, the national average is up nearly 50 cents per gallon from our 2019 low. Unfortunately, this a rut we’ll be stuck in yet for at least a few more weeks.”
Kellogg sells Keebler at discounted price
Kellogg is selling Keebler cookies and other brands for $1.3 billion, about $2.6 billion less than it spent on that brand alone 17 years ago.
Food producers are trying to find new brands with more growth potential after sweeping shifts in consumer taste, particularly in the U.S.
The value of household names like Keebler has deteriorated as families seek food and snack alternatives that are at least perceived to be healthier.
Along with Keebler, Kellogg said Monday that it will sell Mother’s and Famous Amos cookie brands, as well as its fruit-flavored snack, pie crust and ice cream cone businesses, to the Italian sweets maker Ferraro. The brands generated sales of $900 million and profits of $75 million last year, according to Kellogg.
Kellogg acquired Keebler Foods, founded in 1853, in 2001 for $3.86 billion.
Ferrero is best known for the brand Nutella hazelnut cream. The company said Monday that it will also acquire six U.S. manufacturing plants from Kellogg.
The sale is expected to close by the end of July.
U.S. probes fires at Hyundai, Kia
The U.S. government’s highway safety agency has decided to open two new investigations into fires involving Hyundai and Kia vehicles after getting complaints of more than 3,100 fires and 103 injuries.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it granted a petition seeking the investigations by the nonprofit Center for Auto Safety, a consumer advocacy group that filed the petition in June of last year.
The investigations would look into Hyundai and Kia separately and cover non-crash fires in almost 3 million vehicles from the affiliated Korean automakers, including the 2011 through 2014 Hyundai Sonata and Santa Fe, the 2011 through 2014 Kia Optima and Sorento, and the 2010 through 2015 Kia Soul. The complaints came from consumers and from data provided by both automakers.
NHTSA had previously said it would incorporate the noncrash fires into an investigation it had already started into recalls of Hyundai and Kia vehicles for engine failures, but it opened the new investigations “based on the agency’s analysis of information received from multiple manufacturers, consumer complaints and other sources.”
Jason Levine, executive director of the center, said in a statement that it is long past time for the agency to investigate why so many Kia and Hyundai vehicles have caught fire when not involved in crashes.
“While it may be six months post-due, we are gratified to see NHTSA’s Office of Defect Investigations open formal investigations based on our petition,” Levine said.
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