Generals already on watch for gas price-gouging: The Swamp
The Swamp
Posted April 25, 2006 6:49 PM
The Swamp

Posted by Rick Pearson at 6:45 pm CDT

This just in, from Chicago, where the national association of state attorneys general is meeting, and the generals are abuzz about the letter from the Bush Justice Department in Washington today calling on all generals to watch for gasoline price-gouging.

They're already on the case, some say.

Indiana Att'y. Gen. Steve Carter, president of the National Association of Attorneys General, welcomed U.S. Att'y Gen. Alberto Gonzales’ letter, with Carter saying that individual state prosecutors already have been looking into allegations of price gouging since Hurricane Katrina struck last fall.

“All AG’s have become pretty attuned to price gouging on gasoline,” said Carter, a Republican, who was in Chicago for the group’s national conference.

“Frankly, it’s a national market and it’s good that the federal government is paying attention,'' Carter said, "because it’s unlikely that a particular state office has the resources or the jurisdiction.”

Illinois Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan, a Democrat, noted that in the joint letter from the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission chairman the feds contend “they have substantially increased their efforts at the federal level” to investigate price gouging.

“But,” she said, “to the best of my knowledge they’ve done nothing at this point.”

Digg Delicious Facebook Fark Google Newsvine Reddit Yahoo

Comments

The state attorney generals are on the watch--for a cheap "price-gouging" headline. And some free publicity from reporters who should know better, but evidently don't.

There is one and only one thing a state government can do in the short run to lower gas prices--lower state gas taxes. And that they won't do, because the politicians love to spend the gas tax money.


Post a comment

(Anonymous comments will not be posted. Comments aren't posted immediately. They're screened for relevance to the topic, obscenity, spam and over-the-top personal attacks. We can't always get them up as soon as we'd like so please be patient. Thanks for visiting The Swamp.)

Please enter the letter "g" in the field below:

Quizzes

palin or fey

Palin or Fey?

McCain

Know the presidents?

McCain

Your McCain IQ

Obama

Your Obama IQ

Latest polls

Electoral vote map

map

Test your scenarios

Galleries

Palin

Sarah Palin

campaign

Campaign trail

conventions

RNC | DNC

Unauthorized tour

Obama

Obama's Chicago

News, but funnier

Cartoon

Walt Handelsman

Cartoon

The Lowe- Down

Cartoon

Joe Fournier

Cartoon

Editorial cartoons

Candidate match


Test assumptions