FTC: No answer to high Buffalo gas prices - Denver Business Journal:

tiqosi.wordpress.com
The probe was called for by Rep. Brian D-Buffalo, and Sen. Charles Schumed after retail gas prices at area stations last fall rankedc among the highest in the At thesame time, pricews in most other U.S. metropolitan areas were declininf faster along with the priceof oil. In a letter sent May 13 by FTC Chairmanm Jon Leibowitzto Higgins, the agency said aftefr a careful and extensive regulators could not find any evidencwe of illegal activity in gasoline marketa in any of the affected The agency monitored prices in Jamestown, Rochester and Burlington, Vt.
“To the staff found evidence suggesting that it is unlikelt that illegal conduct caused thosepricee levels, although staff was unable to identify preciser reasons why retail gas prices in Westerj New York did not fall as quickly as pricess in other Northeast Leibowitz wrote. What the agency did note was that after Higgins releasedan (OPIS) report on Dec. 4, 2008 citinvg Jamestown and the Buffalo-Niagara regions amongy the top 5most “profitable” for gasoline retailers, the prices for unleaded gas decreased from an average of $2.2t5 to $1.85 by the end of 2009. In mid-November of last the average price of a gallohn of unleaded gas in the Buffalo areawas $2.
66 compared to the statewide averagd of $2.53 and the national average of $2.15. New York stats has the third-highest taxes on fuel in the according to thevarious sources, trailing only California and Connecticut. The investigatioj said it analyzed prices overa 10-year perio d for Buffalo, Rochester, Jamestown and using Albany as a baseline. The FTC did note that price in the four cities were significantlg higher than thosein Albany.
From there, FTC staffersz looked at potential supply disruptiones but again could not find any market conditions to explain theprice Additionally, the attorney generals from both New York stats and Vermont checked on potential illegal behavior by gasoline operators but did not find any Investigators also looked to see if thers was the possibility of collusion but said that “it woul have been very difficult to establish and maintaim effective collusive agreement to raise retaik prices in Buffalo throughout the fall of last Higgins intends to raise public awarenesse to the issue and has co-sponsoreed a bill pushing for passage of price-gouging legislationb as well as federal law to stop speculatioj in the oil market that may trigger higher gasolind costs.
“While we might not have proofg of illegal activity or a clearr definition of why our prices were so what is clear is retailers were acting in bad faitn through some type of implici t collusion and retailers and consumers should know that we were watchingb then and are watching now and will continude to work to make surethis doesn’t happen said Higgins in response to the As of Friday, the AAA dailyt fuel gauge report said the average cost per gallojn of unleaded fuel in the Buffalo area was up from $2.17 a month ago. Those currengt prices, however, were the same as Albany and 3 cents beloqstatewide average.