State Senator Says Consumers Are Getting Price Gouged At The Pump And Wants To Give Attorney General Power To Investigate
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- A state senator says he is drafting legislation to allow the state attorney general to investigate gasoline price gouging.
As KDKA money editor Jon Delano first reported on Monday, Pennsylvania's attorney general does not have independent authority to investigate whether consumers are getting swindled at the pump.
Most Pennsylvanians are surprised to learn that our state attorney general has no legislative authority to investigate price gouging. In an interview with KDKA, attorney general Josh Shapiro said he'd like that authority like attorneys generals in other states.
Turns out, state Sen. Marty Flynn was paying attention.
Delano: Were you as surprised as I was to learn that the attorney general of Pennsylvania...
Flynn: I was very surprised because I said to myself, why can't the attorney general just look at this?
Flynn, a Scranton Democrat, says when it comes to these sudden and extraordinary price hikes in gasoline prices, "The attorney general should have the ability to use a magnifying glass on them."
Shapiro told KDKA on March 7 that current state law only allows the AG to investigate price gouging when an emergency has been declared. He was able to use that power during the pandemic until the Legislature terminated the governor's emergency declaration.
"My office was able to engage in thousands of investigations into price gouging, whether it was for Purel or masks or other things that were associated with really significant price spikes at the time, and we held a lot of businesses and companies accountable," Shapiro said. "The problem is today we can't do that."
Under Flynn's bill, the attorney general would have independent authority at any time to investigate petroleum-related price hikes in excess of 10 percent over 60 days or less. In Pittsburgh, gasoline prices have jumped over 20 percent in 30 days, more than enough to trigger an investigation under Flynn's bill.
"The public is not aware, and personally I'm not aware of what these gas companies are actually paying for the gas, so we don't know how bad we are getting gouged," says Flynn.
"What my legislation will do, it will actually dig into that issue and give him the authority to investigate price gouging at any time," he added.
Delano: Do you suspect that there is price gouging going on in Pennsylvania at the pump?
Flynn: I do, especially what's the difference between $4.50 and $4.25 and $4.75? It's so out of hand that we don't know."
The challenge is where in the pipeline are consumers being ripped off: at the oil well, at the refinery where gasoline is produced, with the distributor bringing the gas to our region, at the neighborhood gas pump?
Flynn says our AG, like those in other states, needs stand-alone power to investigate. Shapiro would welcome the authority.
"I would hope they would all come together and give us the authority we need to protect consumers at the pump, to protect them at the grocery store, or wherever they're seeing significant spikes in cost," says Shapiro.
Flynn hopes his bill will get bipartisan support from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers. He says if you want action on his bill, talk to your state senator and representative now.
