Chattanooga residents crossing into Georgia to save at the pump

Late last month Georgia Governor Brian Kemp took the initiative to further suspend the state’s gas tax. The suspension will last until mid-July.

This saves Georgia residents about 29 cents per gallon. The Georgia state average is $4.43 compared to Tennessee’s average at $4.63 per gallon. This is enticing some Chattanooga residents into crossing state lines to fill up their tanks

Brandon Depth lives in Chattanooga, but plans to take his work truck to fuel up anytime he comes into Georgia. “I came down to Georgia today to see my friend, I know that gas prices are like thirty cents cheaper down here so I drove my work truck. Even if it saves me just, ya know, ten bucks, it’s worth it to me,” said Depth.

Jake Bell of Chattanooga works in Georgia, but lives in Tennessee. He always fuels up in Georgia. “I live in Chattanooga, but I work in Georgia. I always get my gas while I’m in Georgia because it’s much cheaper”, Bell said. “I got an SUV, okay? So for 25 gallons I save five dollars.”

While Tennessean’s are making efforts to conserve. Exxon-Mobil’s most recent quarterly report showed the major gasoline corporation’s earnings to be $5.5 billion dollars. Which is up more than $2.7 billion from this time last year.

Steve Ray owns Midnite Oil in Ooltewah and works directly with distributors, he said the major companies are making money “hand over fist”.

“They’re making money and you know, the thing about oil companies, they like making money, because their shareholders make money and that’s their number one concern, over everything is the performance of their stock for the shareholders,” Ray said. “So, one way to combat that is if you’re in that market buy oil stocks. You’ll see them increase and you’ll off set what you pay on gas with your increase in the value of your stock”

The costs of gas, food and other necessities jumped in May, raising inflation to a new four-decade high of 8.6 percent.