High oil prices worry Dean May 24, 2000

The Associated Press

MONTPELIER - As the Clinton administration worries about the high price of gasoline this summer, Gov. Howard Dean is looking further ahead to the home heating oil season.

Dean said Tuesday he feared efforts to meet the demand for gasoline this summer would lead to higher prices for home heating oil this winter.

"Meeting the demand for gasoline this summer may limit our ability to meet the need for heating fuel next winter," said Dean in a letter sent to members of the congressional delegation. "Domestic refineries are likely to focus production on gasoline, inhibiting our ability to build stocks of heating oil."

The governor, who said he was asking other leaders in the region to sign on to the effort, wants refinery operators to increase the production of heating fuels "to the greatest extent possible" and wants terminal operators to build stocks of heating fuels.

"Vermont is at the end of the distribution system," said Dean. "We do not produce, refine, or import petroleum products, and have only minimal storage capacity."

The governor's comments came as the Clinton administration continued to press efforts to lower the price of gasoline.

"We are saying that by the end of summer the average ... (price of unleaded gasoline will be) between $1.40 and $1.45" a gallon, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said Tuesday.

His comment on ABC's "Good Morning America" came after a nationwide survey estimated the average price had risen from $1.42 a gallon on May 1 to $1.53.

Richardson said the price had been driven up by greater demand, as the peak vacation driving season gets under way, and by tight supplies, due to reduced crude-oil production by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

OPEC, under pressure from the United States and other countries, agreed in March to restore part of a cut in production, and since that time the price of a 42-gallon barrel of crude oil has dropped from $34 to $28. Following the OPEC decision, the Energy Department sharply revised its forecast for gasoline prices and estimated an average of $1.46 a gallon for the summer.

Richardson said Tuesday that the administration would ask OPEC members to consider increasing production again and would prod refineries to push more gasoline onto the market

http://rutlandherald.nybor.com/News/AtAGlance/Story/7758.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), May 23, 2000