Attorneys general join to investigate gas prices

AUGUSTA – Maine’s attorney general has joined dozens of attorneys general nationwide who have banded together to investigate high gasoline prices.

Steven Rowe said the probe is a nonpartisan inquiry into gas and heating oil costs and profits. The group now includes attorneys general from 45 states, including all six in New England.

The investigation, which Rowe said will look at all points along the chain of supply, comes as gasoline prices are starting to drop slightly in Maine and across the nation, although they continue to top $3 a gallon.

The Federal Trade Commission has watchdog responsibility over the oil industry, Rowe said, yet prices have skyrocketed and someone has to figure out why.

“What were prices, costs and margins leading up to [Hurricane] Katrina and what happened afterwards?” Rowe asked Thursday. “Did any of the oil companies make decisions to raise prices simply because they could? Was there illegal profiteering going on?”

AAA automotive club reported that regular gasoline cost just under $3.15 a gallon on average in Maine on Thursday. That was down from $3.17 a gallon on Wednesday, but still 80 cents a gallon higher than a month ago and $1.24 more expensive than a year ago.

The push for a multistate probe of high gas prices began last week when Alabama Attorney General Troy King initiated a conference call with colleagues in other states to discuss strategy in response to reports of huge overnight spikes by some gasoline retailers.

The group now is seeking to get answers to why the prices had risen so sharply and if any laws were being violated.

The number of participating attorneys general stood at 38 earlier this week, but that had jumped to 45 by Thursday, according to a list supplied by Rowe.

He said the states still are determining whether they have the necessary resources for the investigation, but the effort is important because the federal government has failed to rein in or explain high gas prices.

“By pooling our resources [among the states], we’re really able to maximize our effectiveness,” Rowe said.

He said about a third of the staffers in his office’s consumer-protection division are working on the multistate review, which will be completed “as quickly as humanly possible.”

Price-weary Maine motorists welcomed the investigation, but some suggested the attorneys general will find it difficult to hold the industry responsible for its practices.

“I think they’re going to do whatever they want, to tell you the truth,” Tim Brown of Augusta said of the oil companies after he bought gas at the Capitol Mini-Mart in Augusta.