Eastside's Wide-Open Spaces Further Inflate Price Of Gas

GAS PRICES  AAA  GENERAL NEWS 

By April Baer

Portland, OR  May 23, 2008 2:21 p.m.

Four hundred thousand licensed drivers live east of the Cascades. April Baer reports that most of them are stuck paying the highest gas prices in the state this weekend.

Oregon's state average for unleaded is $3.82 a gallon, according to the latest AAA research. But stations in Enterprise report prices well above $4 per gallon. In Burns, one station's selling unleaded for $4.14.

State Representative Cliff Bentz was fielding calls about gas costs even as he made the trip from Baker City to his home in Ontario yesterday.

Cliff Bentz: "Lots of people there saying 'Representative Bentz, what are you going to do about high gasoline prices?'   I've received three calls like that since I returned from Baker City two hours ago. You don't really have the option of taking the bus or the bicycle or the -- well, we have bicycles but it's a long way to pedal to Baker City."

Seventy-three miles, to be exact.

Prices tend to be a bit lower along I-84 and other high-traffic areas, but they're still at or close to record levels.

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