We are glad to see that gas prices in Marquette improved since our last editorial on Nov. 17 when we reported that Meijer in Escanaba was .33 per gallon less than the Meijer in Marquette.

On Monday, the price of gas at Meijer in Marquette was listed on Gas Buddy as $2.57 per gallon. The Meijer in Escanaba came in at $2.43. That is a .14 cent per gallon difference. It is still hard to understand the significant price difference between Marquette and Escanaba. We would still like to have someone representing local gas stations to explain to our readers why gas in Marquette is so much more expensive than it is in Escanaba.

We checked other stations as well and found Krist Oil to be at $2.52 per gallon in Marquette. Krist in Escanaba was $2.43, which is .09 cents per gallon less than Marquette. Krist in Iron Mountain was $2.52 per gallon. Krist in Houghton was $2.63 per gallon.

We are happy to see that we are competitive with the prices in Iron Mountain and Houghton at Krist stations. One of the reasons people in Marquette are so sensitive to the price of gas is because AAA often lists the highest price of gas in the state of Michigan as Marquette. AAA only surveys certain markets, unlike Gas Buddy, which list more markets and prices. No matter how you look at it, people in Marquette feel like they are being taken advantage of by paying the highest price of gas in the state at times.

Our readers have kept in touch with us and they want us to continue to act as the gas price police in the Marquette area, which is why we have written the last two editorials on the issue. We will continue to monitor the prices on gas in Marquette with hopes that in the future we will get closer to the price of gas that Escanaba is charging. As reported in this editorial, we are closer to Iron Mountain and actually lower per gallon than in Houghton. Houghton often has the lowest price of gas because of competition from the Pines Station in Baraga which was listed at $2.30 per gallon by Gas Buddy on Monday. Using the Pines in Baraga is not an apples-to-apples comparison because they don’t have to pay the state taxes that other competitors must pay.

We did the math in the past, showing that the cost to bring gas the additional distance from Escanaba to Marquette may justify an increase of .01 to .02 cents per gallon. This assumption would be based on the additional salary for a truck driver plus the mileage cost associated with fuel used by the tanker to drive the additional distance from Escanaba to Marquette. Take the additional cost and divide that by the number of gallons in a tanker and you come up with justifying the additional cost of .01 to .02 cents per gallon.

As we have offered in the Nov. 17 editorial, we would be glad to host a representative from any one of the gas providers in the Marquette area to address a public forum to explain the justification for high gas prices in Marquette. We will cover the expense of the forum and also provide advanced advertising and promotion to invite consumers to the event. If there is a legitimate reason for high gas prices in Marquette, we would look forward to that reason being explained to Marquette consumers. We would also cover the forum and do a news story for those who are unable to attend.