Gas Price Collusion? Nah

The following AP story was in today's Winston Salem Urinal. I produce it without further comment:

Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Lawsuit says gas supplier fixed costs
Pumps locked after station did not raise prices, lawsuit says
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

RALEIGH

A fuel distributor padlocked the pumps at a Durham gas station and then emptied the store's tanks after the operator refused to increase his prices, Attorney General Roy Cooper said in a price-fixing lawsuit filed yesterday.

"I won't stand for a gas supplier leaning on a local station to hike prices," Cooper said.

"Consumers and businesses are already paying more than ever before for gas. They don't need gas prices hiked even more by somebody trying to make a fast buck."

Cooper's suit says that representatives of McLeod Oil Co. in Mebane pressured Steven M. Grover, the owner of the A&P Mini Mart in Durham, to raise gas prices Sept. 28 by 40 cents a gallon. The suit claims that operators of other stations supplied by McLeod were upset with Grover's low prices.

In an affidavit, Grover said that McLeod told him that his prices needed to be "in the ballpark" of those charged by other stations. Grover declined, and McLeod padlocked the store's pumps, which McLeod owns.

McLeod representatives returned the next week and asked Grover's wife to "get with the program and raise your prices," according to Grover's affidavit. She also declined, and McLeod emptied all of its gas from the store's tanks, which McLeod also owns.

A woman who answered the phone at McLeod referred questions to the company's lawyer and spokesman, David Permar, who is unavailable for comment until Monday, according to an assistant at his office.

Cooper's office said that McLeod was expected to resume supplying gas to A&P yesterday.
In the weeks since hurricanes Katrina and Rita disrupted oil distribution from the Gulf of Mexico, Cooper's office has received hundreds of complaints about gas prices, which yesterday averaged $3.05 for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline.

The lawsuit accuses McLeod, its affiliate Home Oil Inc. and their manager, Wesley C. Mehring, of conspiring to fix prices. Cooper is asking the court to fine each party $5,000 and to force them to relinquish any illegal profits.