Cheap Gasoline in Southeast Tennessee
Motorists are thrilled, and shoppers have a few more dollars in their pockets at the mall—what could possibly be wrong that that?
But, there may be a dark cloud up ahead.
DENNIS STAFFORD, CHATTANOOGA "I’d say better….buddy I’ll tell you..it can keep coming down if it wants to."
Southeast Tennessee has some of the cheapest gasoline prices in the nation. You can find unleaded regular at 1.99 or less at several stations in Chattanooga and Cleveland.
REBECCA RUSSELL, CHATTANOOGA "I was actually turning left and I l saw this 1.99 and and I thought, ‘why not?'(laughter)."
Sometimes the best laid plans got awry. MAPCO stations were offering an additional discount for motorists who have a free station-issued card. In this case, you could get gas for 1.84 a gallon. But, this station on Lee Highway quickly ran out of gas
SONYA HALL, MOTORIST "I scanned everything..and tried to pump gas…and its empty. And I drove from Georgia."
While managers were sorting that out, most of the customers just laughed and went looking for 1.99 gas somewhere else.
Barring an international crisis of some sort, you’ll probably see cheap gas into 2015.
But Lee University Economist Dr. Hermilo Jasso explains that cheap petroleum is a threat to the economy of a dozen nations. .
HERMILO JASSO, PHD, LEE UNIVERSITY ECONOMIST "For Saudi Arabia to have a balanced budget, they have to sell oil for 93…so as you know the price of oil is now at 55…so all these countries are suffering."
Dr. Jasso indicated that if deficits continue it could de-stabilize those countries, and lead to problems world-wide.
Closer to home, the mayors of 40 communities in middle Tennessee are urging the governor to add a penny to the state gasoline tax, to provide money for road improvements and transportation." .
REP. GERALD MCCORMICK, MAJORITY LEADER "I would say the burden of proof falls on those who want to spend more money and raise taxes..I don’t have a lot of my constituents knocking on the door saying lets raise my taxes.They want to see the result of what that will bring them before they buy into that."
Bloomberg reports that oil’s decline is proving to be the worst since the collapse of the financial system in 2008.
Analysts say it threatens to have the same global impact that caused the Mexican debt crisis and the end of the Soviet Union.
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