AAA's public affairs director talks about rising gas prices and the outlook

Mantill Williams

CNN'S Kyra Phillips on Monday talked to Mantill Williams, director of Washington public affairs for the AAA Motor Club about why prices are higher, the outlook for prices and what consumers can do to cut costs.

Phillips: Did you drive to the studio today?

Williams: I took a cab.

Phillips: OK. So you didn't have to worry about the gas prices. We're all feeling it, even though it's the lowest in Atlanta right now. Why don't we talk about the theories of what's going on here. I understand there are a lot of requirements and certain regulations that have to do with gasoline and that that's what many experts feel is leading to these higher prices. Is that true?

Williams: Yeah, that is. That's definitely part of the problem. Right now, gas prices are at an all-time high. We're at $1.68 per gallon, and that's a record, and we hit that record last year, $1.66, and it was in the middle of June. So we haven't even gotten to June yet, and really the summer driving season hasn't even begun.

We have lots of particular boutique gasolines and certain types of brands and -- not brands but certain types of reformulated gasoline for certain areas and certain regions, so, instead of having one national standard of gasoline, we have these different boutique-type gasolines. So it makes it very costly to get the distribution to certain areas.

Phillips: All right. So we're talking to John King, our White House correspondent, and he's saying that right now the Bush administration has said in the past there's just no quick fix to this, that there needs to be a lot of things done with regard to the energy policy, etcetera. Do you see a quick fix right now? Is it possible that within a week we can get those prices down and not feel such a pinch?

Williams: No. Unfortunately, he's right. There are no quick fixes. One thing the White House could do is they could call for a temporary suspension of the cleaner-burning fuels just on an emergency basis, maybe in certain regions. So maybe we can target certain regions and try to get those prices down.

But they're right. What we need is an overall national energy policy, and it has to address our refining capacity. It has to address the high price of -- that we're paying for crude oil, and we have to address our lack of domestic oil and, also, when we're dealing with OPEC. We have to address that situation, too.

Phillips: Now you would think these higher prices would draw in more suppliers. Is that happening?

Williams: Well, unfortunately, when the FTC did their investigation last year, they were finding that some suppliers were actually selling less gasoline at a higher price, which is what we don't want to happen.

In addition to, you know, the government and suppliers having to help us out in the situation -- the motorists themselves can also do some things. So we suggest that maybe we have some voluntary conservation measures by motorists and by people who use gasoline on a daily basis and commercially, if they possibly can, because I think that will also go a long way.

Phillips: Can you give us a couple of quick ideas before we let you go?

Williams: Sure. Definitely. We suggest motorists can look at using public transportation when they're going back and forth to work. That can definitely cut down on a lot of their driving.

Use the smaller vehicle. This might be a good time to let the SUV park in the garage for a while. And the motorist can do some trip chaining, some car pooling.

There's lots of creative ways that the motorists can save money in their wallet and also can help the environment at the same time.

Study finds traffic getting worse
May 7, 2001
U.S. average gasoline price rises 9 cents a gallon
May 6, 2001

AAA
Department of Energy
OPEC

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.