Retail gas prices continue to drop

CAMARILLO, Calif. (AP) – Retail gas prices have continued to drop across the country, falling an additional 11 cents in the past two weeks, according to a survey released Sunday.

The weighted average price for all three grades dropped to $2.16 a gallon on Dec. 2, said Trilby Lundberg, who publishes the semimonthly Lundberg Survey of 7,000 gas stations around the country.

Self-serve regular averaged $2.13 a gallon nationwide. Midgrade cost $2.24, and the price for premium was $2.33.

Prices have fallen about 88 cents a gallon since September, Lundberg said.

Among stations surveyed, the lowest average price in the country for regular unleaded was $1.89 a gallon in Tulsa, Okla. The highest price was $2.55 in Honolulu.

Domino sugar to reopen after hit

NEW ORLEANS (AP) – The Domino sugar refinery near New Orleans, which sustained heavy damage from Hurricane Katrina, plans to reopen Dec. 12 with the majority of its work force back in place.

The refinery is located at Arabi in St. Bernard Parish, which was blitzed by the storm and ensuing floods when levees broke. It produces about 950,000 tons of finished sugar per year, making it one of the largest producers in the United States.

A recent spike in refined sugar prices was blamed on the closure, along with a much-briefer closure of the Imperial Sugar refinery.

Mickey Seither, the Domino refinery’s vice president of operations, said the refinery sustained some wind damage from Katrina’s strike on Aug. 29 but, like the rest of St. Bernard Parish, sustained devastating flooding the next day when hurricane-protection levees broke.