Drill baby Drill

The gasoline tax in Pennsylvania is 57.6 cents per gallon, which here in Warren translates to $3.59 per gallon as I write this. United Refinery Company produces the gasoline in town and manages their 'Quik Fill' chain of stations, which always charge more than in surrounding towns despite being mere yards from the source. Every station in town, which includes an 'independent' Sheetz , charges the exact same price and changes their price up or down within seconds of one another. The same gas in Erie, 65 miles west and in Marienville, 45 miles south, often costs 20 cents less. The gasoline in New York state, about 15 miles north costs 20 cents less, owing partially to a ten cent lower tax rate there. Most local residents assume that price gouging and collusion to maintain a monopoly-perhaps by threats by United to refuse to sell gas to any stations that seek to charge less-is what accounts for the high prices in Warren. Fortunately the cheaper gas in New York means that whenever we go north for groceries or some other reason we fill our tanks there. Occasionally people will drive thirty miles to the Seneca Indian resevation in southern New York where there are no taxes and so gasoline is presently $2.95 a gallon. United procures their raw crude oil from western Canada, although "in larger markets like Erie or Buffalo, gas stations must compete with numerous suppliers, which drives prices down." So Warren's relative isolation and lack of competition allow United to control the market. It is ironic that in this economically depressed area of the nation people consistently pay some of the highest prices in the nation, which at the moment averages $3.18 per gallon nationwide. Still, I witness drivers in parking lots sitting in their cars and trucks with the engine running for fifteen minutes sometimes, so apparently the cost is not so egregious as it seems. Beth and I have considered electric vehicles, but our present travel needs and finances still favor convential gasoline models. My Mirage obtains 47 mpg and the Outback 29-30, but until costs come down-which our government does not allow when it forbids Chinese imports-we cannot justify the purchase except in terms of climate and pollution reduction. Solar panels for the Warren house also would not pay for themselves in our lifetimes, so we are forced to admit our hypocrisy in advocating for cleaner energy while using it only in our bicycles and lawn equipment; our conscience does suffer for it.