Florida reaches record settlement on gas-price gouging after Hurricane Ike

Last year Florida officials got more than 3,000 complaints about price-gouging on gasoline when prices shot up by $1.60 a gallon overnight in the wake of Hurricane Ike. The state's top law enforcement and consumer protection officials subpoenaed distribution records, looking for evidence.

Apparently they found it. The Associated Press is reporting that Attorney General Bill McCollum and Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson say they've reached a nearly $2.3 million settlement with a major gasoline supplier over price hikes while Hurricane Ike threatened the state.

"The settlement is the largest ever paid under the state’s price-gouging law and may be the nation’ largest price-gouging settlement obtained to date," Bronson's agency announced in a news release.

How did the gouging work?  "Investigators for the two offices determined that for the most part, retailers were simply passing on price increases that they were forced to pay by their suppliers," notes Bronson's news release. 

"As a result of that finding, Commissioner Bronson subpoenaed records of the 16 largest oil terminal operations in Florida... and Attorney General McCollum jointly subpoenaed TransMontaigne and others seeking gasoline sales information to determine whether the price increases were legally justified."

The settlement involved Morgan Stanley, which is a wholesaler of motor fuel in Florida, and TransMontaigne, which provides marketing, storage and transportation services for Morgan Stanley’s gasoline.

[AP photo]

--Craig Pittman

Comments

[Allison]

So who gets the money? Probably not the consumers who were forced to pay that much for gas.

[Di]

How is this helping the people who had to pay the high prices. Do they get any of the fine? OF COURSE NOT.

[Diane]

Good for Florida, they will reap the benfits(2.3 Million) of us having paid out the noise to run from a hurricane

[Diane]

Doesn't anybody else see anything wrong with this picture

[UNCONSTITUTIONAL]

THEY STIL MADE MILLIONS MORE IN PROFITS. THEY SHOULD HAVE BEEN FORCED TO GIVE UP ALL MONEY MADE OFF THE RATE INCREASES.

[Dawn]

I don't think that it's right for the state to benefit at the expense of the people. That settlement should be divided up and returned to the tax payers. Heck of a legacy this sets up, "The people get gouged and government gets rewarded." That money should be divided between the people who reported the crimes. The government shouldn't see one lousy penny of it.

[r2cents]

What about the gouging that's going on now?

[Mike]

2.3 million? Wow, that sure hurts. Watch them raise the price for a day or 2 so they can make it up. Next time, make them pay through the nose and return the money to the taxpayers.

[John]

Have you noticed the current gallon price is actually falling with the baril price? It used to be fast to rise and slow to lower. I wish the Times would have printed or inquired about the amount of profit made by these companys. If you have proof (records) why settle?
Oh yeah, where is the money going to? ...I feel like a reporter... Morgan Stanley, weren't they one of them Wall Street criminals?

[John]

I'll go against the grain here - the 'price hikes' were completely justified. With a hurricane coming in, that gas was suddenly much more valuable and people would be willing to pay more for it - same reason the price of wood boarding & other supplies goes up. Should a gallon of water cost the same in the middle of the desert as it does at your neighborhood Publix?

[mr]

John you must work for an oil co. or you are nuts.

[Tino]

Sorry, mr, but what part of a free market don't you understand? Should the government set a fixed price for gasoline?

Currently, you can go to Home Depot and see thousands of sheets of plywood on pallets available for sale.

I would love to buy plywood, store it in my garage, and then if there is a shortage, sell it at a profit. Only one problem: it is a FELONY to do so.

The state would rather people go without the product than allow entrepreneurs to store it and make money.

Making people suffer through a shortage? Now that is criminal.

[John]

No, mr, I don't work for an oil company & I'm not crazy, but I DO understand a basic priciple that you apparently do not - supply & demand. If you were, say, a plumber and you could make A LOT more money in a different area because of a lack of plumbers there, is it "wrong" or "unfair" of you to go? No - being a plumber there is simply more valuable than being a plumber here. The market in the other place had to change by raising the compensation offered to plumbers to entice plumbers to go there. Now, substitute "gasoline" for "plumber" and you might begin to understand my point. Or maybe not. The state's "investigation" and punishment of the gas companies has more to do with cheap political pandering to people like you than with common (or any other kind of) sense.