so with the summer driving season approaching, it s not at all unusual for the prices to increase. but how about $9 a gallon? the price spiked more than $3 in just one night, on friday night last week. joining us on the phone is the mayor of mcgrath, alaska. good day to you. good day to you, alex. i m going to have to fill up in order to talk to you and come there. what is going on there? i think we all asked ourselves the same question monday morning when we went to the gas pumps. $9.22 a gallon made us all crazy, or at least feel that way. it was already high, up to 6 bucks a gallon.
we want to show some reaction to all of this and here is one from the fuel company which says, we emphasize with our mcgrath customers and employees and hope for lower wholesale fuel prices and better river conditions this season, which would help lower their fuel costs. but drivers, in terms of their reaction, what have you heard? we re going to put up a facebook page because there s plenty of of criticism there. there absolutely is. a lot of people are walking to work. the concern is what crowley will do with our heating oil. that s why the community is being proactive instead of waiting until tomorrow. mayor parker, any idea how long this is going to last? we re not sure. we will continue to do what we need to do to bring relief to our residents. until then, until crowley, i guess, figures out this math problem, we ll be flying it in
what is it? the fuel supply? the fuel is not able to get in there? is that what has happened? we have a monopoly in mcgrath with one fuel vendor here and that s what they are blaming it on, alex. but this hour we have fuel flying into fairbanks, alaska for lower. crowley being the owner of the one lone gas station in mcgrath. he says it s because he had to literally fly it in and that was may more expensive than bringing it in on a barge. flying in gas, do you think that warrants an extra 3 bucks a gallon? well, absolutely not. $5.82 a gallon right now this hour in mcgrath. we ve flown it in from fairbanks which is more expensive than where he flew it in from so we don t understand his math.
ourselves. all right. mayor mcgrath from alaska, good luck to all of you and stay put. thank you. we re going to get more on the oil slick looming in the gulf coast. how officials will go about sitting the oil spill on fire and how safe that really is. and a little baby that just couldn t wait to get to the hospital to come into this world. the story of his surprise delivery next. e they share a common goal. america s beverage companies have removed full-calorie soft drinks from schools, reducing beverage calories by 88%. together with schools, we re helping kids make more balanced choices every day. cause band-aid® s stuck on me [ female announcer ] moms trust band-aid® brand to heal the hurt better than store brands.