This story first appeared in the Midcoast Update, a newsletter published every Friday. Sign up here to receive stories about the midcoast delivered to your inbox each week, along with our other newsletters.
Richard Koralek recently drove to Portland from his home in Belfast. Before heading out, he filled up his Subaru Forester in Belfast. But as he drove out of town on Route 3 in Belmont, he noticed that gas was about 20 cents cheaper per gallon.
Since then, he’s been paying attention to prices and has noticed that gas tends to be cheaper outside of town. He doesn’t know what accounts for the price difference, but he’s no longer buying his gas in Belfast.
“We’ll just be driving out of town to get gas,” he said. “I wonder how many more people are going to do this.”
Koralek is among many Mainers who are trying to adapt to bruising gas prices by changing their driving and gas buying habits. The average cost of a gallon of regular gas in Maine was $4.53 on Thursday, according to AAA. That’s 50 cents higher than a month ago, and more than $1.50 higher than this time last year, when a gallon of gas cost $2.99 on average.
These price increases, driven by the U.S.-led war in Iran, are particularly painful in a largely rural state like Maine where driving is often a daily necessity. The lowest earners are being hit the hardest — a report published by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York last week found that people earning under $40,000 cut their gas consumption by 7% during the price spike that occurred in March. Households that earn more than $125,000 cut their consumption by just 1%.
Most of the trips Koralek makes are not optional, so he hasn’t been able to cut down on his driving. But he’s driving slower, harkening back to the 1970s when the government reduced speed limits in response to an oil crisis that drove up gas prices.
Standing at the cash register after gassing up at the Belmont Variety store, Dan Thorburn said he also tries to fill up when he’s out of town — he’s found gas is cheaper in Augusta and even outside Boston last month.
“It was pretty cheap,” he said. Then he corrected himself. “Well, nothing is cheap. But it was under $4.”
Thorburn is on a fixed income and says high fuel prices have him cutting corners wherever he can. He tries to stock up on food and he recently changed car insurance companies to lower his premium. He hopes to switch from heating oil to wood heat.
As the owner of a pickup truck, he gets many requests for favors and he’s started having to ask for gas money.
“It doesn’t run on water,” he said.
For Bucksport resident Kristina Ryberg, who lives about eight miles from downtown, high gas prices have forced her to get more strategic about driving. Before prices spiked, she didn’t think twice about driving into town.
“If I needed something, I’d run and get it,” she said. “Well, I don’t do that anymore.”
Now she keeps a list of things she needs to do and buy and waits until she accumulates three or four things to venture out.
“I’m not just going to jump in the car and do one errand and spend money,” she said.
Ryberg said the cost of fueling her car is compounded by high property taxes, high healthcare costs and the fact that reservations at the cabins that she and her husband rent out for income are way down this year.
High gas prices drove Edward Wildin of Swanville to quit a merchandising job that required a lot of driving. He and his husband also used to routinely make DoorDash deliveries to supplement their income, but as gas prices have climbed, it is less worth it.
Not only have the gas prices cut into what they make, but people seem to be tipping less, Wildin said.
“I have noticed a significant decline in the tip amount on deliveries these days, and one can only assume it is due to the increased cost of living that the increase in gas prices has caused,” he said.
Wildin and his husband live off-grid by necessity, he said. They use gas to power a generator for electricity at home and are skimping on electricity to save money.
They’re also limiting the amount they drive to the absolute minimum, and make sure to get groceries on their way to and from work.
And with the arrival of spring, the couple has a new plan for cutting their gas consumption: They’re getting mopeds, which get around 100 miles per gallon.
