State drivers not putting brakes on fuel use
State drivers not putting brakes on fuel use

By Jack Money

Published: May 23, 2008

Oklahoma's drivers aren't slowing down on fuel buys, even with escalating gasoline prices.

Figures provided by Oklahoma's Tax Commission for the first three months of 2008 compared with the first three months of 2007 show fuel consumption within the state is trending higher this year — not lower — despite higher prices.

The yardstick The Oklahoman used to measure fuel consumption was apportioned state gasoline and diesel taxes.

Motorists buying fuel in the Sooner State pay 16 cents a gallon in state tax for gasoline, and 13 cents a gallon in state tax for diesel, regardless of the fuels' prices.

Tax Commission figures show about $68 million was collected in gasoline taxes during January, February and March of 2007 on sales of 429,269,231 gallons. During January, February and March this year, about $73.3 million was collected on sales of 457,854,875 gallons.

As for diesel sales, they averaged the same during the three-month periods in both years.

The short-term comparison differs from a longer view, though. Less fuel was bought in Oklahoma during the state's 2007 fiscal year (July 1 2006 through June 30 2007) — 1.85 billion gallons of gasoline and about 750 million gallons of diesel — compared to the same time the year before, when motorists bought about 1.95 billion gallons of gasoline and 781 million gallons of diesel.

Steve Agee, an economist at Oklahoma City University, president and chief operating officer of Agee Energy and chairman of the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board, talked about that concept earlier this month when discussing proposals by Sens. John McCain and Hillary Clinton to suspend the federal gasoline tax to ease pump prices.

Agee said at the time — the first week in May — that he had just filled his tank with 91 octane gas, and had paid about $3.86 a gallon to do so. "If the price were 18 cents cheaper, I'd have filled up, and if the price were higher, I would have done the same,” Agee said.

People being hit the hardest by the prices, those who have to use big chunks of their disposable incomes, already are making changes. But many persons are not, he reflected at the time.

Agee attributed the growth in fuel consumption to Oklahoma's percolating economy, fueled both by the oil and gas and agricultural industries.

"When you look out there in rural Oklahoma, you see trucks with oil and gas companies running up and down the roads all the time,” Agee said, "so we are still demanding a lot of oil and gas products.”

Chuck Mai, spokesman for AAA Oklahoma, said he thinks many Oklahomans are finding other ways to cope with the prices, so far.

"There is a psychology of price — we definitely are angry about the price at the pump,” Mai said. "But is it high enough to keep us home when we learn it is going to cost us an extra $32 to make that 1,000 mile trip?

"Right now, it seems the answer is no, and people are finding other ways to economize. But as the price keeps going up, I think the answer will increasingly become ‘yes.'”

Oklahoma's average price for a gallon of gas during 2006 was about $2.41 a gallon. That number jumped to about $2.70 a gallon during 2007. So far this year, the cost has skyrocketed to a wallet-numbing $3.13 a gallon, and still is going up.

Nationally, the average price of fuel also spiraled upward during the same time, from $2.56 a gallon in 2006 to about $2.79 a gallon in 2007 and about $3.26 a gallon so far this year. Thursday, the average cost for gasoline nationally was $3.831 and in Oklahoma, it was $3.706, both records. Records have been set nearly every day this month.

According to the federal government's Energy Information Administration, daily retail gasoline prices reported by AAA have climbed every day since May 5, and agency's weekly retail gasoline price survey also has increased steadily since March 24.

The federal government pegs high fuel prices on the cost of crude oil, which also has been climbing steadily since the end of March, when it cost about $101.50 a barrel. Thursday, it broke $135.

The federal government said one factor not pressuring fuel prices right now is increasing demand. In fact, nationally, the federal government said gasoline demand so far this year is declining slightly.

The federal government's message? Prices could be worse. And the same holds true for Oklahomans, given that they consistently pay some of the lowest average prices in the nation for the fuel.

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