Published: September 19, 2008 08:31 am      

Price gouging further examined

Cooper sends more subpoenas

Thursday, September 18, 2008 — In further legal action on Wednesday, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper issued subpoenas to nine more North Carolina gas stations as part of his investigation of possible price gouging exacerbated by Hurricane Ike in the Gulf of Mexico last Friday.

“It’s okay to make a profit, but it’s not right to run up the costs on consumers at a time like this,” Cooper said.

“Our price gouging law is in effect and we’re moving quickly to enforce the law.”

The latest round of subpoenas involved gas stations in Buncombe, Craven, Cumberland, Guilford, Iredell, McDowell, Montgomery and Yadkin counties where prices were reported between $5.35 and $5.99 per gallon.

On Monday, Cooper’s office sent subpoenas to 12 gas stations in Anson, Ashe, Cherokee, Guilford, Montgomery and Transylvania counties plus two stations in Stanly County.

The two local stations were Quik Chek in Oakboro and Locust. Both stations are owned by Q-C-S Holdings of Troy.

“We’re investigating these cases carefully and we’ll take legal action if we find evidence that any retailer, distributor or wholesaler has gouged consumers,” Cooper said.

Price gouging — or charging unreasonably excessive prices in times of crisis — violates North Carolina General Statute 75-38. The statute was triggered Friday with Gov. Mike Easley’s declaration of an abnormal market disruption due to Hurricane Ike. The price gouging statute applies to all levels of the supply chain from the manufacturer to the distributor to the retailer.

As of Wednesday, Cooper’s office had received more than 3,700 reports of possible price gouging from consumers since Friday. Consumers can report suspected price gouging to Cooper’s office at www.ncdoj.gov to fill out a price gouging complaint form or by calling 1-877-5-NO-SCAM (1-877-566-7226) toll free within North Carolina.

“I’d like to thank the thousands of consumers who’ve taken the time to tell us about possible price gouging,” Cooper said.

“We’re using the information you’ve shared with us to moe forward with our investigations.”

U.S. Rep. Robin Hayes, who called on the Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Friday’s run-up in pricing, said of the situation, “This dramatic rise also proves the point that we need production of oil and gas in additional areas of the country so we are not so dependent on one area in the Gulf of Mexico.”

As for the gouging, Hayes said: “Getting tough on real gouging is a start, but if we are truly going to address the rising cost of oil and gas, we also need to increase conservation; increase the use of alternative fuels; expand our capacity; and expand our supply of the fuel available in our country.”

On Tuesday night, Hayes voted for H.R. 6899, which would remove the total ban on offshore drilling in states such as North Carolina, allowing for exploration for oil and natural gas on the outer continental shelf. (See page 5A).

One local gas station, Fast Stop at N.C. 24-27 in Locust, made the following statement regarding the SNAP’s reporting on Sunday of gas prices at the station of $4.70.9: “Fast Stop 24-27 Locust ran out of gas on 9/18/08 late evening or 9/19/08 early morning at the price of $3.79.9. When $4.70.9 was posted on the sign, we did not have any gas and were not sure what the price would be when we got gas. When we found out what the cost was, we dropped the price to $4.19.9. This price factored the credit card fees which average $160.00 a day at this location.”