Commerce Dept. Seeks Financial Data from Gas Retailers

None by KCPW

Answers Possible Next Week

(KCPW News) Wholesalers dropped the price of gas 35 cents a gallon back in August, but retail prices have yet to fall a corresponding amount. As the Utah Department of Commerce ramps up its investigation of high prices at the pump, Francine Giani, executive director, is developing a working theory:

"Someone said to me just the other day, well, maybe it's good old fashioned American ingenuity, someone trying to make a buck. Well, I call that gouging. Is gouging illegal? It may not be, but certainly it's immoral, and that's the decision we have to come to grips with."

Prices at Utah pumps have been higher than the national average in recent weeks. Monday, Giani sent letters to the Utah Petroleum Association and Utah Petroleum Marketers and Retailers Association seeking financial data on crude oil pricing and purchasing histories to get to the bottom of Utah's high prices. The Utah Department of Commerce expects to have answers to its inquiries in the next week or so, at which point, says Giani, she'll report to Governor Huntsman:

"We talk every day; clearly he has great interest in this. He's been very upset over the prices, and he should be. He's hearing from consumers every day, and so he's asked us to take a look at it, and that's what we're doing."

The governor has now added a link to the lowest gasoline prices at Utah pumps on his website, click here.

Email to a friendPosted in KCPW Newsroom. Copyright 2008 KCPW