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U.S. probes gas hikes: Feds look for price gouging near holiday
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| Contributor | User 13 |
| Last Edited | User 13 Sep 05, 2003 10:50am |
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| Category | News |
| News Date | Friday, September 5, 2003 06:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | The U.S. Energy Department said yesterday that it's probing the reasons for the pre-Labor Day spike in gas prices across the nation - even as prices in Massachusetts continued to set records.
Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham told a congressional hearing yesterday that dramatic pre-Labor Day weekend fuel hikes prompted the probe for possible price gouging.
``The nature of this fluctuation struck me as being unusually large as well and in need of greater explanation,'' he said.
Abraham said he believes some of the hikes were indeed caused by low oil inventory, strong holiday demand and disruptions to oil refineries caused by last month's power blackouts across the Midwest and Northeast. But the probe won't stop there, he said.
``We'll hopefully get some additional insight into whether or not this was really a market reaction only or if other factors were involved,'' said Abraham, adding his agency is working with the Federal Trade Commission on the probe.
In many parts of the country, gas prices began to drop yesterday, two days after the Labor Day holiday. The national per-gallon average for regular gas stood at $1.731 yesterday, down a fraction from its record high of $1.737 last Saturday, according to the AAA.
But across Massachusetts and in Boston, prices continued to rise slightly, setting an average record yesterday of $1.812 per gallon for regular unleaded, the AAA Southern New England reported.
Some gas stations in Boston yesterday were charging more than $2 per gallon, such as the Exxon station on Beacon Hill's Cambridge Street - where a gallon of regular was going for $2.099
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