PHOTO: Gasoline and diesel prices in Del Norte, Colorado, on the other side of Wolf Creek Pass. December 4, 2023.
A group of concerned citizens gathered at the Sisson Library last Friday, to share ideas about the high price of gasoline and diesel fuels in Pagosa Springs.
The library presentation was led by Jane Davison, who is fairly new to the Pagosa community, but — like many of us — concerned that we are getting taken to the cleaners, by the owners of our local gas stations. Prices here have been consistently higher than in nearby towns like Bayfield, Durango and Chama.
Higher, reportedly, than almost anywhere else in Colorado.
“Taken to the cleaners.” Those are my words, not Ms. Davison’s.
A few of Ms. Davison’s words, on Friday:
“Here is a chart is a six-month view of the average gas price in Colorado. As you see, in September the price started falling. However, in Pagosa Springs, it stayed well above $4.00 a gallon.”
By November 1, the average Colorado price appears to have fallen to about $3.05 per gallon (unleaded gas). Our price in Pagosa stayed much higher than that.
“If you consider that the average auto has a 13-gallon tank — that is pretty much average — if I went to Durango and bought gas, I would pay $8.32 less. If I bought gas in Bayfield, I’d pay $7.54 less.” (These estimates were based on gas prices as of November 29.)
Ms. Davison shared several slides, explaining the costs that go into a gallon of gasoline (and diesel) according the the American Petroleum Institute…
…including this chart:
Ms. Davison provided some information she had gathered from various sources, concerning our local gas stations, and she shared a spreadsheet.
“These bottom three stations are owned by one individual. I talked to that individual on the phone, Wednesday — he was visiting India; he’s an [East] Indian gentleman, and he was very difficult to understand — but from what he told me, he mentioned that he talks to City Market. And he’s setting prices based on those conversations… That’s an anti-trust issue. Between the storage capacity at City Market and the storage at his three stations, that’s 57% of the total capacity here in Pagosa Springs.”
Ms. Davison calculated — based on the population of Archuleta County — that the higher gas prices in the county, during 2021, cost local residents a total of about $661,000 over what we would have paid in a nearby town.
The most serious impacts were to our lowest income families, she suggested.
“Higher gas prices also drive up costs for goods and services. Thinks about companies that deliver goods, snowplow operators, home healthcare providers. And probably a whole lot more that I just didn’t think of.”
Ms. Davison then introduced Archuleta County Commissioner Warren Brown, who has been in contact with the Colorado Attorney General’s office about the problem.
Commissioner Brown:
“This has been an issue to me, because I feel like, as a community, we are being taken advantage of. And in fact, I stopped buying fuel, for the most part, in Archuleta County. I would drive to Durango, bring a gas can, and I’d fill it up.
“Which is understandable, but it actually hurts our bottom line at the County, because we get what are called Highway User Taxes. A portion of those taxes, that are paid by us, are provided to the County, and we distribute the funding to the metro districts throughout the county, as well as to the County itself. So it’s just not as productive [to purchase gas outside the county].
“So I had the opportunity to speak with our Attorney General, Phil Weiser. We were meeting on a different issue, and I said, ‘Hey, we’re really getting choked by these gas prices. Is there something you can suggest that I’m not thinking of?’ And he said, ‘No, I don’t really see anything based on what you’re telling me.’ He thought maybe we had a lack of competition.
“The next time I saw him, I had a ‘scaled-down’ version of what Jane is showing you — it included only the gas prices — and I said, ‘Look, we have seven gas stations. Bayfiled has two gas stations, and lower prices. Sauguache, for criminy sakes, has two gas stations, and they are far cheaper than we are. And he said, ‘I just think we can do anything for you. The laws are such that, I don’t see a way to address this…’
“So I had our legal department look into whether the County has legal standing to take some legal action on this, and I was told, no, we do not.
“It just so happens, I was at a conference this last week, as Jane mentioned, and lo and behold, one of the speakers was the Attorney General. And I like Attorney General Weiser. I think he’s a good guy. And he puts it out there, that he’s all about consumer protection, and I’ve seen his work. He came to our aid a couple of years ago, when we had some issues with propane delivery…”
Some of our Daily Post readers may recall that issue, when Bob’s LP simply stopped delivering to customers, in the middle of winter.
Commissioner Brown has more to say, and so did Ms. Davison — and so did the audience — and we’ll listen to some those comments tomorrow in Part Two.
But I’m itching to share some photographs first.
Following the library meeting, I drove by a couple of the gas stations in downtown Pagosa, to take pictures of the gas prices on display on Friday.
I was mildly surprised to find a variety of prices for unleaded gas.
I was mildly surprised… because I had somehow formed the impression that every gas station was charging exactly the same price, throughout the whole town.
Apparently not.
And this fact ties into one of the suggestions made later on, at the library meeting. That we should find a way to publicize and promote, through the internet, the gas stations that offer us the best prices. On a daily basis.
If the governments can’t help us, maybe we can help ourselves?
But how would that work, exactly?
Bill Hudson began sharing his opinions in the Pagosa Daily Post in 2004 and can’t seem to break the habit. He claims that, in Pagosa Springs, opinions are like pickup trucks: everybody has one.