Gas Prices Up Monday, Thousands Report Suspected Gouging

Attorney General Henry McMaster says his office has received more than 800 phone calls and 2,000 emails from South Carolinians who think local gas stations are price gouging. He says investigators are not out gathering evidence in any possible cases yet. They’re still compiling the reports and looking for patterns. But he says, to him, it looks like there probably are some legitimate cases of price gouging. He just doesn’t want to accuse anyone yet until all the evidence is in.

He says it’ll take time to go through all the complaints. In suspected cases, his investigators will look at the records of how much the station paid for its gas and how much its supplier was charging and compare that to the photos and receipts that customers are sending in. He stressed that not all high prices are gouging. If a gas station is going to be charged 75 cents more per gallon for its next delivery, it’s justified in charging 75 cents more per gallon now.

AAA Carolinas reports the average price of gas went up by more than a dime Sunday morning. Meanwhile, the oil industry infrastructure along the Gulf coast appears to have weathered heavy damage from Hurricane Ike.

The average price for a gallon of regular unleaded in the Upstate is $4.10 Monday according to AAA Fuel Gauge. That's up from $4.00 on Sunday. The average price in Asheville and western North Carolina is $4.30. That's up by 15 cents in a day.

The South Carolina Attorney General has invoked the state's price gouging prohibition statute. Henery McMaster says price gouging for gasoline and other commodities constitutes an unfair trade practice and a criminal misdemeanor.

The Attorney General is asking if you have witnessed a potential violation, please notify his office immediately. The Attorney General has established a special email address for this purpose:

GasPrices@SCAttorneyGeneral.com

You can also call (803) 734-3970 for more information.

The South Carolina Attorney
General's office has received about 800 phone calls since Friday and 1689 emails to the special price-gouging email address. That does not include calls to local law enforcement or Consumer Affairs.

The Greenville County Sheriff’s Office will be documenting information provided by citizens in response to price gouging of gasoline. Anyone wishing to report price gouging should contact the Sheriff’s Office at (864) 271-5210.

Gov. Mike Easley also declared a state of "abnormal market disruption" and signed an order allowing the North Carolina attorney general to enforce the state’s anti-gouging law. Those who want to report possible price gouging should contact:

N.C. Attorney General’s Office
Consumer Protection Division
Phone: 877-566-7226

The attorney general can sue merchants if state officials find that gas stations have excessively inflated prices.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - More than 2,500 gas consumers across North Carolina reported claims of price gouging over the weekend as gas prices skyrocketed in reaction to Hurricane Ike. Spokeswoman Noelle Talley said Attorney General Roy Cooper's office is expected to send out subpoenas to several North Carolina gas stations throughout the day Monday.

On Friday, Gov. Mike Easley declared a state of "abnormal market disruption" and signed an order allowing Cooper to enforce the state's anti-gouging law. Cooper was expected to discuss his office's investigation into possible price-gouging Monday afternoon. AAA officials said the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline in North Carolina is up to $4.085 a gallon, more than 50 cents higher that it was last week.

Bush: Ike put 'pinch' on energy supply, prices

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush says Hurricane Ike has placed a pinch on the energy supply, driving up prices and frustration.

After a briefing on hurricane recovery efforts, the president said Monday he was concerned about the "upward pressure" on prices for consumers.

He said he was planning to visit Texas, where Ike came ashore early Saturday at Galveston. The eye missed the center of Houston, as well as the largest concentrations of oil and gas refineries but left many without homes or power.

Bush said it was good news that the hurricane did not damage the infrastructure as much as some people feared. He said he would bring a message to Texas on Tuesday saying the government is working fast to help people recover.

Senate leader McConnell wants energy plan

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - The leader of the South Carolina Senate says the state needs a comprehensive energy plan.

Charleston Senator Glenn McConnell has written to the State Regulation of Public Utilities Review Committee outlining challenges the state faces.

The president pro tem of the Senate said South Carolina faces problems that go well beyond the $4 per gallon gasoline prices and double-digit increases in wholesale power costs prompted by coal
prices.

The Post & Courier of Charleston reported Monday that McConnell said future congressional standards on carbon emissions, the price of raw materials and commodities and the country's economic slowdown must be considered.

Walhalla Senator Thomas Alexander said his review committee will begin work within a week to get recommendations ready by the end of the year.

Oil prices drop Monday, latest on oil industry along the Gulf of Mexico

Oil prices have dropped to below $96 a barrel in Monday trading. That's the lowest figure in seven months.

Federal officials said Sunday that the storm destroyed at least 10 oil and gas platforms and damaged pipelines in the Gulf of Mexico, only a small amount of the 3,800 production platforms in the Gulf.

The Energy Information Administration reported Sunday afternoon that 1.3 million barrels per day (or almost 100 percent) of the federal portion of the Gulf of Mexico's crude oil production was shut-in. The EIA says 15 refineries in Texas and Louisiana were closed ahead of Ike. Those facilities represent 22 percent of the U.S. Operable capacity.

The EIA says it's unclear how long facilities along the Gulf of Mexico will be down, so trying to judge the impact on gas prices is difficult.

The Department of Energy agreed to deliver 200,000 barrels of emergency exchange oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to ConocoPhillips Company's Wood River refinery along the Capline pipeline system and will also deliver an additional 109,000 barrels of emergency exchange oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to Placid Oil's Port Allen refinery along a Shell pipeline in Louisiana.

Oil prices, meanwhile, have plunged to a seven-month low. That's in reaction to indications that oil installations along the Gulf Coast emerged relatively unharmed after Hurricane Ike. Light, sweet crude for November delivery was recently trading below $96 a barrel.

Portions of stories by The Associated Press were used in this report