This past Thursday afternoon I noticed the price gas at the two Speedway locations in Belpre went up 20 cents per gallon. This happens quite often, as Speedway will raise the price by 20 cents a gallon for a day or two, then return to the prior price. However I then noticed Friday morning that all the stations in Belpre raised prices from $3.39 to $3.59 per gallon.
I checked my Yellow Page app for gas prices and found out this only happen in Belpre and Marietta. That prices in Parkersburg held steady or dropped by a few cents per gallon.
Then on Saturday morning all the stations were back to $3.39 per gallon in the Belpre area. I think the people of Belpre got nailed. All of this in less that a 48 hour period of time. The people of Belpre were trying to recovery from the effects of the storm, just like the people in Parkersburg, the only difference we got robbed by 20 cents a gallon, the gas companies really showed they have a heart. This is not meant to reflect on the employees of the stations, as they don't set the price, they just follow orders from somewhere.
It's also interesting that the fuel taxes in Ohio are 46.4 cents per gallon vs. West Virginia at 51.8 cents per gallon. This would indicate to me that gas should be about a nickel a gallon less in Belpre than in Parkersburg and that's hardly ever the case.
Ron Clampitt
Belpre
