The funny thing about gas is it's a necessity. It's not like McDonald's. The price of a Big Mac goes up, you just stop eating them. After a midsummer dip, prices jumped again this past week because of jitters over oil supplies as violence erupted in the Middle East.
Energy is suddenly a hot-button issue for the first time in a decade.
He picked up the phone. From his Taylor office, sitting beneath a Bengal tiger gazing down from a mural on the wall, Simon called a Lansing number. Gov. John Engler said he would call back in a few minutes. Simon waited, fretting. His Atlas Oil Co., which supplies fuel to 120 gas stations around metro Detroit, had run out of premium gas.