PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — The world of gasoline sales is a world of artificial borders, territorial rules and prices all over the map.

Boiled down, the price of gas in Pittsburgh is about 40 cents a gallon more expensive than just a few miles away along the eastern border of Ohio.

KDKA’s John Shumway drove into Ohio Tuesday from Beaver County and with gas prices of $4 a gallon in our rearview mirror, he had barely crossed into East Liverpool, Ohio when he found a Marathon station selling gas for $3.75.

In downtown East Liverpool, a BP gas station was doing a brisk business with a price of $3.79 a gallon.

That’s where KDKA-TV found Mark Circcarelli of Hopewell Township.

“When I came into town I noticed the sign was $3.79 – 20 cents different so I decided to fill up here,” he said.

But KDKA-TV heard there was even cheaper gas further sound along Ohio 7 to the Gem Capitol of Ohio, Toronto, where gas was $3.59 a gallon. That is 40 cents cheaper than Pittsburgh!

That big a difference prompts the question, why? Basically the oil companies use the Ohio-Pennsylvania line as a gasoline supply border.

East of the line in Pittsburgh, we get our fuel by pipeline from New York and Philly.

West of the line, the gas comes in from the Chicago region. Plus the seven southwestern counties of Pennsylvania are environmentally required to burn a higher vapor pressure gasoline which is significantly more expensive than the blend they burn in eastern Ohio.

There is currently an effort underway to suspend the fuel requirement for our area but so far is has not found legislative traction in Harrisburg or Washington.

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