Fuel prices produce gasps, fumes

A California tourist town’s residents are so peeved at the pump that they’ll drive miles to fill up more cheaply.

BRIDGEPORT, CALIF — . — As Californians brace for ever-higher gasoline prices, they can glimpse what might be their future in this tiny Eastern Sierra town, where motorists pay more than $4 a gallon at the two gas stations.

The Shell station in Bridgeport, a tourist town of 850 residents during the summertime peak, is charging $4.09 a gallon for regular. The outlet posted prices above the $4 mark at least four other times this year.
Rosemary Glazier, who works in Bridgeport as Mono County’s assistant finance director, is so irritated by the prices that she refuses to fill up at the local stations.

“It makes the whole town look bad,” Glazier said of the $4-plus prices. Instead, she drives all the way to Gardnerville in Nevada, 62 miles north of Bridgeport, where gas is substantially cheaper.

Soon, however, there may be no escape.

Driven largely by the soaring cost of crude oil, pump prices across the country are approaching the lofty levels that set records during the summer — an unprecedented turn of events that will make this Thanksgiving weekend the most expensive ever for millions of travelers. And $4 fuel may become a more common sight, perhaps as early as next year, some gas-watchers predict.

Los Angeles Times