Poll: Public Feeling Fuel Prices’ Effects

09/16/2005

WASHINGTON (AP) - Diane Utecht of Wisconsin plans to close off most of her house this winter to reduce her heating bill. Elaine Hobbs’ husband recently canceled a trip from their home in Rochester, N.Y., to Baltimore to see his daughter on her birthday because gas prices were too high.

With gasoline hovering close to $3 a gallon and the government forecasting big increases in heating fuel costs this fall, these are only a few of the adjustments Americans are making. And they aren’t happy about it.

“I have to block off every room except the kitchen, the bathroom and the living room,” said Utecht, a retiree from Loconto, Wis. “I sleep in my living room because I can’t afford to heat the house.”

Seven in 10 people in a recent AP-Ipsos poll said they expect high gas prices to cause financial problems in the coming months - up from half who felt that way in June 2004. Four in 10 of those polled recently - especially women, minorities and older Americans - say gas costs will cause them serious problems.

The cost of gasoline could ease somewhat as domestic oil production returns to August levels in the coming months. Industry officials estimate that natural gas and heating oil prices will rise about 70 percent because already tight supplies were disrupted by Katrina.

Those high prices are changing people’s behavior, a recent Pew Research Center poll found.

More than two-thirds of people say they’re driving less and shop for the best price on gasoline. More than six in 10 say they’re adjusting the temperature in their homes to keep a lid on utility bills. Almost that many say they have changed their plans for travel to avoid driving long distances.

Almost three in 10 say they’ve bought a car that gets better gas mileage.

Aware of public frustration over gas prices, Republicans and Democrats in Congress are looking into whether oil companies and gas stations are unfairly boosting prices in search of higher profits.

Seven in 10 in the AP-Ipsos poll said they disapprove of how the president is handling gasoline prices, and 43 percent of Republicans surveyed said they were unhappy with Bush over fuel costs.

“This is getting out of hand if the person in charge ain’t putting a stop” to it, said Hobbs, whose husband canceled a trip to Baltimore and is rethinking a trip from upstate New York to Kentucky for her mother’s 70th birthday.

“What it used to cost going both ways, now costs that to go one way,” Hobbs said.