New gas surcharge could pump up gas prices

Watching the price of gas drop has been a gift for drivers recently. We’re at a five-year low nationally, igniting new trends.

“There’s been times when I drive until pay day, on orange, and I’m just hoping to make it to work and what not,” Andrew Harris said. “And actually it’s really nice right now.”

The wait at Safeway’s gas station Friday afternoon is proof more people are filling up more often.

“We’ve been taking more trips just because we can,” Jason Hough said. “Road trips, that sort of thing. It’s not as expensive.”

Hough said money saved at the pump is more money for play.
But like most, he figures prices will go back up.

And now, some are worried about the new cap and trade surcharge for oil companies.

Nine years ago, voters passed California’s Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 under Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as a way to offset greenhouse gas emissions. Gas and diesel industries will be fined if they don’t adhere to current carbon pollution standards.”

“Most people have forgotten about it, and it’s easy to vote for something if it doesn’t cost you something,” Salinas Valley Ford-Lincoln Vice President Lars Frieberg said.

“The oil companies are not going to want to make less money. Eventually, a lot of those costs will be passed onto the consumer,” Frieberg said.

Frieberg said he saw sales for SUVs and trucks go up in December and he attributes that to low prices at the pump.

“When fuel prices go way up, hybrid sales go way up. When fuel prices go down, big truck sales go up.”

The price of gas is hard to predict with numerous factors.

“I think people are getting tired of this and saying I’m just going to get a good, modern, vehicle and be done with it,” Frieberg said.

Experts predict the increase will equal about 10 cents more a gallon.

The goal of the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.