Natso responds to ATA letter on 'price gouging,' says it welcomes investigations
WASHINGTON -- Members of the truck stop and travel plaza industry said March 6 that they welcome any investigation into fuel price gouging but that no prior investigations have ever turned up "evidence of gouging or price-fixing."
The statement was in response to a letter sent by the American Trucking Associations to the attorneys general of all 50 states asking them to be alert to diesel price gouging in their respective states.
Natso, the organization of truck stop and travel plaza operators, said in a press release that attorneys general should "heed" the fact that "crude oil prices are hovering at two-year highs" and that a barrel of crude sells at $36, double what it was last year.
The Natso release also noted that winter weather this year "has been 30 percent colder than 2002" and that home heating oil and truck diesel come from the same source.
"We'll watch with bated breath for the trucking industry's mea culpa when the weather turns warmer and the war and political instability in Venezuela ends," the Natso statement concluded.
In his letter, ATA President and CEO Bill Graves warned of the impact the industry's "skyrocketing" fuel prices were having and asked the attorneys general "to be vigilant of potential diesel fuel price gouging .... This will be especially needed if and when there is a war with Iraq."
Graves said that the current fuel prices are bad enough without "opportunists making it worse."
-- The Trucker Staff March 7, 2003