State joins price-gouging probe

www.wisinfo.com Posted Mar. 08, 2003 By John Dipko Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers

MADISON — Concern about rising gas prices has sparked a three-state request to look at whether fuel wholesalers and retailers are cashing in on tensions in the Middle East.

Wisconsin Atty. Gen. Peg Lautenschlager and her counterparts in Iowa and Illinois asked the Federal Trade Commission in writing Friday to study whether wholesalers or retailers are raising prices to record highs to take advantage of the situation in Iraq.

The letter to FTC Chairman Timothy Muris notes the American Automobile Association has accused some wholesalers or retailers of coming dangerously close to price gouging.

“I am urging the FTC to take action now to protect Wisconsin consumers,” Lautenschlager said. “While there are complicated factors driving the cost of gasoline, we must draw a clear line between free market fluctuations and out-and-out price-gouging at the pump, which we will not tolerate.”

Gas prices in the Fox Valley average about $1.75 per gallon of regular unleaded.

But Robert Bartlett, president of the Petroleum Marketers Association of Wisconsin, said it appears Lautenschlager’s advisers are unaware of fundamental market forces.

Bartlett said crude oil prices were $36.76 a barrel at the end of February, which is $14.39 more than the $22.37-per-barrel price a year earlier. Tensions in the Middle East and strikes in Venezuela have sent crude oil prices skyrocketing, he said.

“Retailers, just like consumers, are taking it on the chin right now,” Bartlett said. “Many retailers are reporting to me that they’re having a record unprofitable year, and many small retailers are financially very distressed at this point. So we resent any notion being promoted that implies Wisconsin retailers are taking advantage of consumers.”

John Dipko writes for the Green Bay Press-Gazette.