(Photo: Motorists fuel up at a Tijuana Gas Station. David McNew/Getty Images)
Mexico's national oil company has begun rationing the supply of gasoline in Baja California, as it began doing with diesel a few weeks ago. This as soaring gas prices in the United States send drivers south. KPBS Reporter Amy Isackson has the story.
Gas station owners in Tijuana say officials with Mexico's oil company, PEMEX, are cutting the supply of gas to stations in Baja by about 10 percent. The cut comes as demand for gas in the region has spiked about 33 percent.
The President of Tijuana's Association of Gas Station owners, Joaquin Avina, says according to PEMEX, stations are selling too much gas to people in the U.S. and that's why PEMEX is cutting supply. But Avina says it's just not true.
Avina says PEMEX simply doesn't understand economic and cultural life along the border. Avina, says 90-percent of Mexican gas and diesel is consumed by Mexicans. He says demand in Tijuana is up now because people who used to fill their tanks in San Diego do so south of the border. He says the majority are people who live in Tijuana and work in San Diego or Mexicans who've moved to San Diego.
In Tijuana, Amy Isackson, KPBS News.
