SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- An official with the Illinois Petroleum Marketers Association & Illinois Association of Convenience Stores (IPMA-IACS) said some gas stations may shut down if another disaster similar to Hurricane Katrina hits.
William Fleischli, executive vice president of IPMA-IACS, said that way, the stations will not be accused of price gouging, according to the Associated Press.
He said that stations did not benefit unduly from any price run-up that followed last summer's hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
As previously reported, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office investigated allegations of gouging after both of those weather events, then accused 18 stations of price gouging. Madigan said she would not bring legal action against the stations if they each donated $1,000 to the American Red Cross and agreed not to gouge in the future.
The stations signed the deal last week, but maintain they did nothing wrong, and some said Madigan was unfairly targeting small, independent owners.
One fellow industry association executive sympathized. "That's the predicament many of these crusading AG's have created for motor fuel retailersit might be safer and cheaper to temporarily shut down than to expose your business to the wrath of Monday-morning quarterbacks intent on punishing anyone who refuses to sell gasoline at a loss," James Calvin, president of the New York Association of Convenience Stores (NYACS), told CSP Daily News.
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