"They never should have let this oil-company president BE the president.''

Gas prices hit record; motorists hit ceiling
DRIVERS PAY $3.05 A GALLON, CHANGE LIFESTYLES
By Lisa Fernandez
Mercury News

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/14404628.htm



Ron Pratt isn't dining out this weekend. It's not that the 55-year-old Fremont artist can't find a babysitter or would rather cuddle up with a good book. His problem: record gas prices. On Friday, filling up his 2002 Chevrolet van cost him $66.54. And, like other Bay Area drivers who are mad as heck about the above-$3-per-gallon cost, Pratt figures it's time to change his lifestyle. Gas prices hit a record Friday in San Jose, averaging $3.05 a gallon on the same day that crude oil prices hit a record $75 a barrel, up from $69 a week ago, according to AAA. And it's going to get worse, with prices expected to climb through Memorial Day.

Pratt and his wife ``used to go out three times a week. Maybe we go out once now,'' he said. ``And no more weekend trips to Monterey, Carmel, Mendocino.'' Like others filling up Friday at the Valero station at Fremont Boulevard and Mowry Avenue in Fremont, Pratt blamed President Bush, the oil companies and the Iraq war.

``It's comforting to blame one person, or one industry,'' said Sean Comey, who tracks gas prices for AAA. ``But . . . there's a lot of blame to go around.'' What's contributing to the increase of 39 cents a gallon in the past month? Comey said traders fear a shortage of crude oil, and refineries are recovering from last year's hurricanes or shutting down for seasonal maintenance. ``Because supply and demand are so tightly bound,'' Comey said, ``if we could just reduce the demand a little bit individually, a couple gallons a month, it would have a meaningful impact.''

Buy a new -- and much smaller -- car. That's what Harlan Blackshire of Union City did Friday. ``I'm totally mad,'' the 43-year-old refrigerator service technician said, stepping out of his 2002 used silver Mini. ``It doesn't have to be this way. They never should have let the oil companies buy up all the other oil companies. They never should have let this oil-company president be the president.'' Blackshire shelled out $39.30 for 12 gallons of premium gas. He bought the Mini, in part, so that when he drives to Tracy to meet a special lady friend, he can still afford to take her out to dinner or a movie.

wtf did people think was going to happen when you put a room full of OIL people in charge?