NEW YORK, USA (AP) — As the number of nights without power stretched on for thousands left in the dark after Superstorm Sandy, patience understandably turned to anger and outrage.
But an Associated Press analysis of outage times from other big hurricanes and tropical storms suggests that, on the whole, the response to Sandy by utility companies, especially in hardest-hit New York and New Jersey, was typical – or even a little faster than elsewhere after other huge storms.
Chad Bryan, Gleaner Writer
As the current exchange between the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (Petrojam) and the Micro, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise (MSME) Alliance continues, fuel prices keep going up. The MSME is the latest organisation to complain publicly about high gas prices. MSME member and Jamaica Solar Energy Association President Roger Chang, is asking that Petrojam make its pricing mechanism public.
Rising gas prices are a consistent feature of Jamaica, in the past punctuated by riots as government taxes caused a sudden spike, which aroused public ire.
One of those riots was in January 1979 when, under the Michael Manley-led People’s National Party (PNP) government, fuel prices increased from $3 to $3.20 a gallon for premium gasolene and from $2.85 to $ 3.10 a gallon for regular.
In January 1985, yet another year started with increased fuel prices ande riots, this time under the Edward Seaga-led Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) government. Five people were killed in the violence that ensued after a $1.91 increase, prices moving from $8.99 a gallon to $10.90 a gallon for premium gasolene.
In April 1999, with the PNP back in control under the leadership of PJ Patterson, demonstrators took to the streets to protest a hike in fuel tax from $1.55 a gallon to $2.
On Friday, Petrojam’s website listed E10 (87) gasolene at $107.5228 and E10 (90) at $109.1787, prices to which dealers would add their margins.
The increase in fuel prices is an all too common occurrence which motorists continue to grapple with at the pumps as, since recently, the cost of fuel went up by $2.00 to cost $107.52 for a litre of E-10 87, $109.17 for E-10 90 gasolene and automotive diesel, which has gone up by $1.11 to sell for $ 107.29 per litre. The earliest figures on the website were $27.4276 for unleaded 87 grade fuel in February 2004, with unleaded 90 going for $28.8704 at that time.
Cheap petrol price?
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