Gas Under $2 a Gallon & New Processing Plant

Gas Under $2 a Gallon & New Processing Plant. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.

I can guarantee catching sight of a gas station sign that announces gasoline for under $2 will be getting a lot of attention. Gas prices have been headed downward in the last few months due to a glut of U.S. oil and depressed international oil prices and all these things have been a benefit to American drivers. Over the weekend a bit of a milestone was achieved at some gas stations in Portland. Costco stores were selling gasoline at $1.99 for regular unleaded. Prices will eventually rebound but for now it might be good time to think about stocking up or at least filling up.

J.R. Simplot is partnering with a Texas beef packer to open a new processing plant near Kuna, Idaho. Ken Dey with Simplot says there are a lot of new jobs about to come online.

DEY: You know we're actually expecting up to 600 new jobs so it's significant impact obviously for our market in terms of jobs. It's a cull plant so it'll deal primarily in cull cows and bulls from throughout the northwest area farms and cattle ranches as opposed to the more traditional processing plants.

The facility make it so that culls won't have to be shipped to places like Phoenix or California for processing so the new plant will save producers a significant amount on shipping.

That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network of the West.