The World newspaper, Coos Bay, Oregon
August 14, 2004
State initiates investigation of gas prices
By Howard Yune, Staff Writer
Spurred by the South Coast's largest wave of complaints about gasoline prices in more than a decade, the office of state Attorney General Hardy Myers has opened an investigation into local filling stations' pricing policies.
The attorney general's office began its probe on Aug. 6, according to Jan Margosian, Myers' consumer protection coordinator. Margosian called the investigation a response to a sharp increase in the number of price complaints from Coos, Curry and western Douglas counties, the largest number since the Persian Gulf War briefly spurred a run-up in fuel prices in 1991.
Kevin Neely, a spokesman for the attorney general's office, said Friday the department has received 90 letters of complaint from the South Coast - all of them filed since July 1 - compared to five last year, one in 2002 and two in 2001.
Crude-oil prices in recent months have soared above $40 a barrel and pinched drivers' wallets nationwide. But Margosian said the other factors that would cause a natural, seasonal price increase on the South Coast are absent - a disruption of the fuel pipeline that terminates in Eugene (the starting point for tanker trucks headed for Southern Oregon) or the springtime switch from winter-formulated fuel, which contains different additives than the summer variety - giving the state reason enough to investigate gasoline pricing in the region.
Margosian gave few details about the investigation, declining to say whether the state office has contacted fuel distributors or how long the probe may last. The department's last price investigation in Coos County, in 1991, was dropped for lack of evidence.
OregonGasPrices.com, a Web site that allows drivers to file local per-gallon fuel costs statewide, listed three of the five highest prices for regular (87-octane) unleaded gasoline in Reedsport ($2.15 at two stations) and Florence ($2.09 outside a Fred Meyer store) as of 2:15 p.m. Friday. Eight other stations in Waldport and Newport, on the Central Coast, were listed among the 15 costliest places to refuel.
All of the 15 lowest prices in Oregon were in the Willamette Valley, including 10 in Salem, where the least expensive gallon of gas was available for $1.73. (See sidebar.)
An early petitioner, Helen Franklin of North Bend, observed prices have dropped slightly from the peaks they reached in June and July but remain over $2 per gallon countywide. The discontent over fuel costs, she declared, is energizing residents as few issues can - to the point that several people are discussing a class-action lawsuit against area fuel distributors, even with a state investigation in progress.
"We've opened a dialogue in the community and allowed people to vent their frustrations," Franklin said on Friday. "... They say, 'I knew it; I've been telling my neighbors that they're sticking it to us.'"
According to Margosian, the state's punishment of distributors found to be fixing fuel prices would take the form of fines but not price rollbacks, a step Franklin called inadequate for the strain gasoline prices put on the local economy, especially on trucking businesses and others dependent on driving. (Franklin formerly owned Pacific Timber, which she closed in 2000.)
"What I'd like to see is restitution to small businesses and low-income people in this community who are hit hardest by this - and they really are hit hard," she said. "I don't begrudge (station owners) their profit, that's the point of running a business, but the excessive profit is offensive."
News of the state beginning its probe of the South Coast's fuel pricing was a welcome surprise both to Franklin and another petitioner, Marvin Caldera, president of the International Longshore Workers Union's Local 12 in North Bend.
"I think the people writing letters is what's going to make the difference," Caldera added. "I think the stations should be more community oriented and not take advantage of the neighbors who depend on them."
"That is fantastic; I'm amazed," Franklin agreed. "It tells us maybe we are on the right track and others have concerns about the price of gas here."
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