October 09, 2008
Thursday PM

I've been thinking that if I owned a gas station in Ketchikan I would break free from the pack of price-fixers in our town (and no one can convince me that there isn't price-fixing going on, however illegal it may be) and drop my prices by oh, maybe 25 cents a gallon just to start. If we had one brave gasoline dealer charging us $4.10 for a gallon of unleaded instead of the $4.34 - $4.37 still being charged by the seven or so stations we have in our little captive island market, what do you think the result would be? Drivers would flock to the station charging the least.

It just chaps my hide that we are being gouged in Alaska, whether it's because of greedy retailers or the refining "duopoly" we have in our state which claim to be having difficulty turning a profit. Hawaii's prices have dropped below $4 a gallon; what is going on here? We got a few cents per gallon relief when the state fuel tax was recently suspended, but how about a little break beyond that. Folks here have to deal with the same economic crisis happening globally; the very least our neighbors who sell gasoline could do is give us some relief!

I read this article today which prompted me to share my thoughts: http://www.wmbfnews.com/Global/story.asp?S=9150334&nav=menu675_2

Thanks for the opportunity to do so,

Karen Ramsey
Ketchikan, AK

Received October 09, 2008 - Published October 09, 2008

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