SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- A California Energy Commission report released Friday states that investigators found no evidence of price gouging at retail gas stations in recent months, despite jumps of as much as 28 cents in one week.
The budget-busting prices, which reached more than $3 per gallon in late September, were caused primarily by hurricanes Katrina and Rita, problems at California oil refineries, increased exports from the state to Arizona and Nevada, and other factors, the report states, according to the North County Times.
"Based on our review, the Energy Commission found no evidence indicating widespread gouging," commission chairman Joseph Desmond said Friday. He added that the 45-page report does not address allegations of price-gouging by individual owners. A San Diego-based critic of the commission said Friday that the agency is "looking in the wrong place."
"They are looking at the retail level, and it's not the retailers that are doing it," Charles Langley, a gasoline analyst at the Utility Consumers Action Network, told the Times. "It's the refineries," Langley said. "We are being gouged at the refining and wholesale level."
To avoid future price spikes, the California Energy Commission is recommending that the Legislature and governor consider establishing a public goods charge, similar to the surcharge on electricity and natural gas bills, according to a report from the Associated Press. The money raised by the charge could go toward assisting low-income families hit hardest by high gas prices, create incentives for consumers to buy alternative fuel and high-efficiency vehicles, and provide funding for projects intended to keep the state's fuel prices stable.
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