Federal, state officials boost vigilance on gas prices

By Tom Doggett

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – With U.S. consumers angry over high
gasoline costs, federal and state officials met this week to
improve their coordination for investigating pump pricing this
summer for potential illegal activity.

U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Federal Trade
Commission Chairman Deborah Majoras discussed the issue on
Monday with officials from 14 state attorneys general offices.

During the closed-door, one-hour meeting at the Justice
Department, Gonzales and Majoras told the attorneys general the
Bush administration was committed to going after energy
companies that illegally charge consumers for gasoline.

“We discussed several ways to improve federal and state
cooperation in this area, and I look forward to continuing our
conversation on ways to protect American consumers in this
critical market,” the FTC’s Majoras said in a statement.

Federal officials said the states could do more themselves
to prosecute companies accused of wrongdoing. They noted that
many state laws place stronger restrictions on how gasoline can
be priced than federal statutes do, according to a Justice
Department official with knowledge of the meeting.

“Some states have laws on the books that have more teeth
than the federal laws do,” said the official, who asked not to
be identified.

The federal government has authority to prosecute oil
companies that act together to illegally raise prices, while
many state laws prohibit a company from acting on its own to
charge unfair fuel prices.

The attorneys general asked that states get better access
to gasoline pricing information collected daily by the FTC, so
they can better identify any illegal pricing activity.

The average price for regular unleaded gasoline jumped 1.4
cents over the last week to $2.91 a gallon, up 78 cents from a
year ago, according to the Energy Department.

The meeting did not produce any “new leads” from either the
federal government or the states on potential lawbreakers, the
official said.

The states represented at the meeting included
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland,
Oregon, Arizona, West Virginia and North Dakota.

Big oil companies say the free market sets gasoline prices
and blame high pump prices on crude oil costs, strong motor
fuel demand and tighter gasoline supplies.