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By STEPHEN R. LEVINE slevine@leader.net
Monday, February 07, 2000 Page: 3A
Some local truckers say the recent rise in fuel prices could force them off
the roads and onto the picket lines.
The cost of heating oil and diesel fuel, essentially the same product, has
skyrocketed in the past few weeks, forcing state Attorney General Mike Fisher
to call for an investigation. But last week, Fisher said there may be little
he can do because price-gouging is not illegal in Pennsylvania.
Heating oil prices rose from about $1 dollar per gallon before Christmas to
close to $2 per gallon last week. The difference between heating oil and
diesel fuel is heating oil contains a colored dye and is not taxed as heavily
as diesel fuel. On Sunday, truckers said the price of diesel fuel has climbed
from roughly $1.30 per gallon before the holidays to nearly $2.40.
“As of yesterday, it went up another 50 cents per gallon,” said Frank
Lombardo of Yatesville. “It was $1.89 a gallon. It’s like $2.40 per gallon
now.”
He said it cost him $400 to fill up just one of his trucks on Saturday.
Lombardo said fuel prices in the Northeastern United States are higher than
prices in the rest of the country. He said his family’s four-truck business
does much of its freight-hauling business in the Northeast and that fuel
prices in Pennsylvania and other northern states are more than $1 per gallon
more than elsewhere.
Trucker John Ruby said the disparity is “totally out of control.”
Ruby, who uses his six-truck fleet for interstate freight hauling, said the
high cost of fuel forced him to park two trucks recently and he’s “ready to
park the rest of them as soon as someone gives the word.”
“There’s been talk of a strike because the government’s not doing anything
(to bring fuel costs down),” he said.
He predicted if truckers in the northeastern U.S. strike, it would cripple
the economy. But even if they don’t strike, the higher cost of diesel fuel
would inevitably get passed along to consumers in higher-priced goods, he
said.
“If the trucks have to charge more to deliver the goods it’s going to
(trickle down) until it hits the loaf of bread on your kitchen table,” he
said. Last week, U.S. Rep. Don Sherwood, R-Tunkhannock, requested the Energy
Department look into the sudden price hike. He noted that oil prices have
edged up to $30 a barrel from a low of less than $12 a barrel a year ago and
said rising oil prices could drive independent truckers out of business.
Mark P. Hrobuchak of MPH Transportation & Logistics in Scranton last week
wrote to Vice President Al Gore for help.
“We need prices to be rolled back now,” he wrote. “I have been in this
business all my life (and) I know there is no supply problem in our area. We
are simply being price-gouged.”
On Friday, about 400 gallons of fuel was reported siphoned out of fuel
tanks from trucks at the Lion Brewery in Wilkes-Barre. Lombardo said it may be
a sign of things to come.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.