Chattanooga motorists paying highest gas prices since 2008

Mar. 8—Gasoline prices have risen to their highest levels since 2008 and could be headed even higher due to the ongoing turmoil in the energy markets created by the invasion of Ukraine and economic sanctions imposed in response against Russia, one of the world's biggest oil producers.

The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline in Chattanooga spiked by more than 36 cents a gallon in the past week to $3.81 a gallon, according to GasBuddy's survey of 170 stations in Chattanooga. Local motorists are paying $1.30 a gallon, or 52% higher prices for gasoline than they did a year ago.

"I used to fill my truck for $25," Calhoun, Georgia, motorist Mose Whitfield lamented Monday after paying more than $72 to fill up his 2015 Dodge 4x4 pickup. "I don't know what we can do about it, but it hurts all of us."

Whitfield was among hundreds of motorists Monday who lined up at Sam's Club on Lee Highway where the $3.75-per-gallon price for regular fuel was below most other local stations.

Patricia Collier said fuel prices rose to $4.09 a gallon in Trenton, Georiga, where she lives.

"I'm on a very limited income, and it cost me $61 to fill up my tank today," she said. "It's absolutely horrible when you get less than $2,000 a month to live on and you have to have gas to get your food and medicine. I'm afraid as long as we sit back and take this, we're all going to be like cattle going to a slaughter."

Across the nation, the jump in gas prices was even worse than in Chattanooga, with the average price of gas in the U.S. rising by 46.5 cents per gallon in the past week to $4.06 per gallon, according to GasBuddy data compiled from more than 11 million weekly price reports covering over 150,000 gas stations across the nation. U.S. gas prices are a few pennies below their all-time record high of just over $4.10 per gallon in 2008, when Hurricane Katrina tore through the Gulf of Mexico and shut down many refineries.

"Forget the $4 per gallon mark, the nation will soon set new all-time record highs, and we could push closer to a national average of $4.50 per gallon," Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said in a report Monday. "We've never been in this situation before, with this level of uncertainty. As we lose a major global producer under the weight of deserving bipartisan sanctions for invading a sovereign country, the cost is high. Americans will be feeling the pain of the rise in prices for quite some time, with little good news foreseen."

Russian oil

Gas prices may head even higher in the coming weeks, especially if the United States and its allies decide to cut off buying Russian oil as many members of Congress are urging President Joe Biden to do.

U.S. Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tennessee, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who wanted Biden to impose economic sanctions on Russia before the invasion to discourage such action, said he now thinks the U.S. and its allies should quit funding the Russian government by buying its oil.

"The Biden administration continues to play both sides of this war," Hagerty told the Times Free Press Friday during a visit in Cleveland, Tennessee. "On the one hand, they are supplying Ukraine with lethal weapons, and I approve of that. But on the other hand, we're buying Russian oil. In Russia's centralized, socialist economy, [Russian President] Vladimir Putin's No. 1 source of revenue is oil and we are, in effect, subsidizing the Russian war machine as it attacks Ukraine."

Hagerty blamed Biden's decision to limit oil exploration and cancel the Keystone pipeline for pushing up the price of gas.

"Higher gas prices aren't a necessity at all," Hagerty said. "High gas prices are because we are no longer energy independent, and that is totally at the feet of the Biden administration. They own this."

U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee, also blamed Biden for higher gas prices and the end of American energy independence from White House moves to cancel the Keystone pipeline and suspend drilling on federal land.

"This proof of his commitment to a green agenda made environmental lobbyists cheer, but the radical policy shift decimated thousands of jobs and jeopardized any chance America had at maintaining energy independence," Blackburn said in a statement Monday.

Last year, the U.S. imported 672,000 barrels of oil a day from Russia, which amounts to about 8% of all oil imports.

"Not only does this make Russia the third-largest supplier of crude oil to the U.S., but it also means that any policy action against Russia must be weighed against the potential ramifications for our trade relationship," Blackburn said. "Holding Putin to account for his invasion has the potential to constrain already short supplies of oil and push record-breaking prices at the pump even higher. The left's climate fears have weakened our ability to challenge Russian aggression."

Energy independence

Hagerty said Biden should have announced at the State of the Union he was granting the Keystone pipeline permit to allow for the shipment of up to 830,000 barrels of oil per day from the Alberta oil sands south all the way to Nebraska.

Dr. Ron Turcotte, a retired physicist who is a second-generation Ukraine emigrant to the U.S. and now lives in St. Elmo, said gas "is the best portable source of energy" and needs to be sustained, not curtailed.

"You can't carry a windmill or a nuclear plant with you," he said. "The problem is that Biden shut down our pipelines."

The Biden White House said it is trying to move away from fossil fuels, which produce greenhouses gases linked to global warming.

Biden has so far also resisted calls from Democrats and Republicans to ban Russian oil imports, as Putin continues to mount the Russian attack on Ukraine. Germany and other European nations have signaled similar opposition.

"I wouldn't support an embargo on imports of fossil fuels from Russia," German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said Thursday. "I would even speak out against it because we would threaten the social peace in the republic with that."

For countries like Germany, which source half their gas from Russia, "the worst case is that people start dying because they can't heat their homes," Adam Pankratz, a professor at the University of British Columbia's Sauder School of Business, told Fortune magazine. "It means freezing and possibly dead Germans."

Russia exports 5 million barrels of crude oil a day, representing around 12% of global trade and making it the world's largest exporter.

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a letter to her colleagues Sunday that "the House is currently exploring strong legislation" to further isolate Russia because of its attack on Ukraine. That could include a ban on imports of Russian oil and energy products, she said.

Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Energy Committee floated a bill last week that would end the import of Russian crude oil and liquefied natural gas.

"We should stop buying over 600,000 barrels [of Russian oil] a day in America.," said West Virginia's Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, who is leading the push. "Can you believe that? No one knew that. No one paid attention to it. And that has to stop."

With the prospect of more Russian sanctions and uncertainty in Ukraine, oil prices briefly rose Monday as high as $139 a barrel before settling back to about $123 a barrel, a gain of about 4%.

At a briefing Monday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said, "I would note that what the president is most focused on is ensuring we are continuing to take steps to deliver punishing economic consequences on Putin while taking all action necessary to limit the impact to prices at the gas pump. "

Gas price spike

The weekly rise in gas prices over the past week was one of the largest ever, following only the rise of 49 cents per gallon during the week of Sept. 3, 2005. California gas prices are expected to top $6 a gallon in some areas.

AAA said average U.S. regular-grade gasoline prices topped $4 a gallon on Sunday, up 11%, or nearly 40 cents a gallon, in the past week.

Last week, the International Energy Agency announced a coordinated release of crude oil from its 31 member countries' strategic reserves — including the U.S., Germany, Canada, South Korea and Mexico — to help counter the impact of rising crude prices. On Friday, the agency said member states committed to releasing a total of 61.7 million barrels from their strategic reserves to reassure markets roiled by the fallout from Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The amount — half of which is expected to come from the U.S. — is the largest coordinated release since the International Energy Agency was founded in 1974.

Despite this announcement, gas prices have continued to rise given that the amount of oil planned for release is small in comparison to the amount that flows daily from Russia to other countries around the globe. According to the agency, Russia exports approximately 5 million barrels of crude oil a day, representing about 12% of its global trade.

AAA, which has data going back to 2000, said U.S. retail gasoline prices hit a record of just over $4.11 a gallon on July 17, 2008, which was around the same time U.S. crude futures soared to a record $147.27 a barrel.

"It's been a long time since we saw prices like this, and I hope it doesn't last," said Fort Oglethorpe motorist Bill Flowers, who spent over $81 Monday to fill his Ford 150 truck. "But the price of everything seems to be going up."

The Associated Press and Reuter's news service contributed to this report.

Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6340. Follow him on Twitter @dflessner1.