Gas in L.A. vs. Chicago

Who says there's no good news today? The government's latest survey shows that as per-gallon pump prices skyrocket in Chicago, Cleveland and Houston due to Hurricane Ike (40 cents, 43 cents and 23 cents, respectively), the average L.A. price for regular showed a 7 cent decline from last week, to $3.761 a gallon. Unlike locations in the Midwest and East, California does not rely on Texas refineries because of the special anti-emission gas that’s required here. Also, the Texas refineries do not appear to have suffered much damage from the weekend storm. That means there won't be heavy demand from Arizona and other locations to substitute Texas gas with California gas. The big run-up in prices is likely to last only a week or so, as the Texas refineries get back online.