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Gas giveaway helps, but prices still pinch

By COURTENAY EDELHART, Californian staff writer
cedelhart@bakersfield.com | Tuesday, Oct 7 2008 6:30 PM

Last Updated: Wednesday, Oct 8 2008 7:36 AM

Falling gas prices don’t seem to have diminished grumbling at the pump.

People who arrived early at the Chevron where California Lottery officials gave away $50 gas cards Tuesday morning only had to wait about an hour.

Toward the end, though, the wait stretched to two hours and beyond. And still, cars kept coming.

“I’ve never done anything like this, but I had a blast. It’s a circus!” said Dee Dee Shearer, 62, as she pumped $50 in fuel into her Chevy Tahoe.

Shearer was No. 123 of 200 drivers who got a free $50 gas card if they bought $10 in Daily 4 lottery tickets.

State Lottery officials have been doing gas giveaways around the state to promote the newest daily drawing, a game rolled out in May that has an average payout of about $5,000.

The same promotion took place in Chico and San Diego before stopping in Bakersfield. Additional giveaways are scheduled in Santa Barbara, Fresno and two other cities yet to be announced.

The promotion is modeled after a gas giveaway in Florida, and grew out of hearings the state held to find out why California’s games aren’t as popular as those of some other states, said State Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, who showed up to observe the idea he pushed for to raise money for education.

“We’ve studied our lottery participation and it’s always the same people playing the same games,” Florez said. “We’re tying to generate interest from people who don’t normally play, and I think it’s working. Most of these people have never played the lottery before.”

Mary Pettis, 50, got in line at 9:10 a.m. even though the promotion wasn’t officially scheduled to start until 11. She was pumping gas about an hour and 20 minutes later, but said the fuel was well worth the wait.

“You get some gas and you might win something, too,” she said, shrugging. “Gas has dropped a little bit, but it’s still outrageous.”

That seemed to be the prevailing sentiment among drivers winding their way to the gas station at the corner of Rosedale Highway and Calloway Drive.

Although gas prices have fallen substantially since exceeding $4 a gallon in July, there weren’t many people breathing sighs of relief at Chevron, where regular unleaded was $3.59 a gallon.

“It’s still high. Way too high,” said Sheanika Elijah, 30, as she fueled her GMC Yukon. “This costs about $120 to fill up, so this doesn’t even buy me half a tank.”

Crude oil closed Tuesday at $89.32 a barrel, according to the New York Mercantile Exchange. But that hasn’t helped retail prices much, which angers people such as Patrick Ogivlie, 20, who, pumping after waiting nearly two hours, noted oil companies are posting record profits even as families struggle to get around.

“It’s ridiculous,” he said.

Retail gas price increases have always followed rises in crude oil prices “pretty snappily,” said Craig Pirrong, professor and director of energy markets for the Global Energy Management Institute at the University of Houston.

But retail prices are much slower to mirror crude oil prices on the way down. No one is really sure why, but some blame is placed on the refining process, an interim step on fuel’s journey to consumers.

That said, crude oil prices are falling pretty rapidly amid fear that the spiraling economy will drive down demand, Pirrong said.

“If the financial turmoil isn’t addressed, prices will fall quite substantially,” he said.

That can’t come soon enough for Shearer, the driver with the Tahoe.

“I’m lucky it’s just me and my husband,” she said. “I don’t have kids to drive around to school and activities. I don’t know how families with children do it.”