Area Gas Prices Remain High

Even though Hurricane Ike hit the Gulf Coast, we are still feeling effects here at the gas pumps.

In Wilmington, prices for a gallon of regular unleaded fuel lingered around four dollars on Saturday. That’s almost forty cents higher than just two days ago.

The Wal-Mart in Leland, for example, charged four dollars and nine cents.

The fuel feeding frenzy broke out Friday when Ike shut down oil refineries in the Gulf Coast and limited the nation’s fuel supply. Some North Carolinians say they have spent close to one hundred dollars on gas in the past two days.

“Well, when I heard about what was going on I decided to fill my baby cake up,” Tony Henry said Saturday. Henry lives in Cary, works in Wilmington, and drives a pick-up truck. “Now I’m going to finish filling up again today and then I’m going to park it for about three to four days and jump on the moped.”

“I hope whoever wins in November will help change that so the prices aren’t as high for people,” said Nate Kurtz of Wilmington.

On Friday afternoon Governor Easley enacted the price gouging law, which prohibits retailers from charging prices that are “unreasonably excessive.” The state attorney general’s office, however, would not put an exact amount on how high is too high.