School’s almost out, summer’s nearly here and the price of gasoline is ... wait, can this be right? ... dropping.

On Tuesday a gallon of regular-grade gas sold in Tacoma for $3.191. By today, the price had plummeted to $3.186, a full $.005 decline.

Last month, drivers were paying $3.447 – and tomorrow marks the one-month anniversary of Tacoma’s highest recorded price for a gallon at $3.459, according to AAA.
So call the kids, wake the neighbors and dust off the Hummer.

Or not.
Gas and oil futures jumped Wednesday on a government report that raised concerns that refiners aren’t producing enough gasoline to meet peak summer demand.
In its weekly inventory report, Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration said gasoline stockpiles were unchanged last week and refinery utilization fell. Analysts had expected solid increases in both measures. Imports of refined gasoline also declined.

As a result, some analysts think prices at the pump are about to stop falling.
Gasoline inventories were unchanged at 201.5 million barrels in the week ended June 8, the EIA report said. Analysts expected gas inventories to rise by 2 million barrels. Gas stockpiles are down 6 percent from the same week last year – when a gallon of regular was selling for $3.112.

Refinery utilization, which had been expected to grow by 0.8 percent, fell 0.4 percent to 89.2 percent, the second straight weekly decline. Most analysts think refineries should be using 94 percent to 95 percent of their capacity this time of year.

The Wall Street Journal says International Lease Finance Corp. plans to order 50 more Boeing 787s soon.

The aircraft leasing company, the biggest in the world, is considered a critical customer for both Airbus and Boeing. That's not only because of the size of its orders, but because it's leased aircraft often open the door for more orders directly from the airlines that lease planes from ILFC.

ILFC's Stephen Udvar-Hazy has already ordered 20 787s from Boeing, so an additional order would raise the leasing company's 787 fleet to 70. And Hazy is on the record as saying the leasing company eventually may have 100 787's in it's portfolio.

If ILFC carries through soon, the 787 order book will be more than 650 aircraft. And with the Paris Airshow coming up next week, Boeing could add even more to it's already fat backlog for the jet.

The 787 Dreamliner already has won more pre-production orders than any other jet in history. The plane is scheduled to debut July 8 and fly for the first time in late August.

Boeing's schedule calls for the plane to be delivered to its first customer, ANA, in May of next year.

The plane has already outsold some aircraft that were on the market for years, including the Lockheed L-1011, the McDonnell Douglas DC-10, Boeing's own 717 and Airbus' A380.

The LeMay Automobile Museum has added Bill Chapin, president of Chapin & Co., to its board of directors. Chapin was elected at the June board meeting held at the GM Heritage Center.

As a grandson of Roy D. Chapin, a founder of the Hudson Motor Car Company, and the son of Roy D. Chapin, Jr., former chairman and CEO of American Motors, Bill Chapin has been involved in the automotive industry his entire life.

Chapin spent 14 years with American Motors Corporation (AMC) in various positions. He spent two years on special assignment in Paris playing an instrumental role in launching Jeep Cherokee in Europe, and was named AMC’s Director of International Marketing in 1984, a position he held until leaving AMC in 1987 to establish his own automotive marketing services company.

David Madeira, president and CEO of the LeMay Museum, said Chapin "is one of those rare individuals who has vision, thinks strategically and is able to implement at an operational level. His passion for preserving automotive heritage and his ability to form strategic relationships toward that end will invaluably aid our efforts to build and promote ‘America’s Car Museum.’”

Starbucks Corp. agreed to pay $85,000 to settle claims that the company discriminated against an ex-employee with bipolar disorder and violated the Americans With Disabilities Act.

Starbucks will pay Christine Drake $75,000 and donate $10,000 to the Disabilities Rights Legal Center, which works with low-income people with disabilities, the U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission said in a statement today.

Starbucks, which gave Drake “extra training and support” for more than two years at a Seattle store, told her during her third year that she was “not Starbucks material” and later fired her, the EEOC said in the lawsuit.

Brandon Borrman, a spokesman at Seattle-based Starbucks, didn’t immediately return a telephone message to his office, according to Bloomberg News.