FTC: high gas prices in 2006 not fixed

WASHINGTON – The Federal Trade Commission said Thursday it found no evidence of market manipulation by refiners and other sellers in gasoline prices spiking at more than $3 a gallon during the summer of 2006.

Three-quarters of the run-up in the average retail price of gasoline from $2.28 a gallon in February 2006 to a peak of $3.02 a gallon in August 2006 was due to increases in the price of crude oil and ethanol during the summer driving season, the FTC said in a report to President Bush.


The commission put the rest of the blame on increased demand, less gasoline production because of refiners switching to ethanol, damages to refineries from hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 and other refinery outages.

FTC officials who investigated the price run-up said they “cannot definitively rule out all other contributing factors.” But they concluded there was “no evidence that refiners conspired to restrict supply or otherwise violated the antitrust laws.”

AP