By Jason Scheer and Karenlyn Barone
"Well, there goes my pay raise, and I guess my bonus just flew right out the window," said Rich Schementi, 29, as he filled up for $3.59 a gallon at a gas station in Lynbrook. "I just bought a home, and I'm concerned with how I'm going to keep it warm this winter."
At the Exxon Station on the corner of Long Beach Road and Atlantic Avenue in Oceanside, on the morning of
Sept. 1, Steven Apt stood next to his GMC Yukon with a look of disgust on his face.
He was paying $3.45 a gallon. For midgrade. "I'm probably going to put $70 in my tank today," said Apt, who fills up once a week. Five days earlier, he said, at the very same station, at the very same pump, he paid $2.85.
"You have to do what you have to do," he reasoned. "You still need gas. People will pay what they have to."
Mohammed, one of the employees at the Exxon station, said he is doing what he has to do. A central office sets the price. He just posts it on the large blue and white sign on the corner. "I just do what they tell me," he said.
In addition to destroying homes, schools and families, Katrina ripped apart oil refineries off the gulf coast. With great demand and a diminished supply, prices for oil rose and, in turn, so did prices at the pump.
But Mike, the owner of a gas station in Rockville Centre, said that's just a crutch oil companies will fall back on. "This is not about price," he said. "The oil companies deal in futures. They were paid for the oil three months ago. This is about the oil companies being greedy. I changed the prices twice this morning."
Schementi said that whatever the reason for the cost increase, it is having a devastating effect on his finances, as well as his outlook.
"One of my workers just traded in his SUV for a 4-cylinder car," Schementi said. "And I couldn't even take my 2-year-old son to Sesame Place in Pennsylvania this past weekend because of the gas prices. This is ridiculous."
Schementi said that there had to be alternatives to the rising gas costs, and that elected officials should pursue those routes. "The government is claiming it's the hurricane," he said, "but I don't buy it. There are other resources for fuel. I think Bush is paying bills with the money."
A degree of control
In Nassau County, officials have taken steps to ensure that the rise in prices will be kept under control, at least to some degree. On Sept. 1, the Nassau County Office of Consumer Affairs and the Long Island Gasoline Retailers Association Inc., which represent about 1,000 gas stations throughout Nassau and Queens, reached an accord that will limit consumer costs on gasoline purchases.
LIGRA has pledged not to raise gas prices at any of its member stations more than their increased costs. "The agreement made by LIGRA is a welcome one at a time when gas prices are jumping every day," Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi said. "This will protect consumers from price gouging, while still allowing gas station owners to conduct business."
Consumer Affairs Commissioner Roger C. Bogsted said his office is trying to strike similar agreements with other agencies. In the end, he hopes that "no one will be making an undue profit on the tragedy that has been experienced in Louisiana."
Bogsted also said that credit card companies, which help finance the purchase of gasoline for companies big and small, can help the situation by curtailing their finance charges. "It would be entirely appropriate for credit card companies to cut these fees until [things get better]," he said. "But chances are slim that that will happen."
Nicole Falco contributed to this story. Comments about it? JScheer@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 234.
