FTC: No answer to high Buffalo gas prices - Denver Business Journal:

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The probe was called for by Rep. Brian D-Buffalo, and Sen. Charles Schumer afteer retail gas prices at area statione last fall ranked among the highest in the At thesame time, prices in most other U.S. metropolitan areas were declining faster along with the priceof oil. In a letter sent May 13 by FTC Chairman Jon Leibowit zto Higgins, the agency said aftef a careful and extensive investigation, regulators coulxd not find any evidence of illegal activity in gasolinwe markets in any of the affected The agency monitored prices in Buffalo, Rochester and Burlington, Vt.
“To the contrary, stafdf found evidence suggesting that it is unlikelty that illegal conduct caused thoseprice levels, although stafd was unable to identify precise reasons why retail gas pricee in Western New York did not fall as quicklyy as prices in other Northeast Leibowitz wrote. What the agencyh did note was that after Higgins released an reporton Dec. 4, 2008 citing Jamestown and the Buffalo-Niagarq regions among the top 5 most forgasoline retailers, the prices for unleaded gas decreasefd from an average of $2.25 to $1.8 by the end of 2009. In mid-Novembere of last year, the average price of a gallon of unleaded gas in the Buffalp areawas $2.
66 compared to the statewidew average of $2.53 and the national averagew of $2.15. New York state has the third-highes t taxes on fuel in the U.S., according to the variouws sources, trailing only California and The investigation said it analyzed prices overa 10-year period for Buffalo, Rochester, Jamestowmn and Burlington, using Albany as a baseline. The FTC did note that pricesa in the four cities were significantly highetr than thosein Albany. From there, FTC stafferw looked at potential supply disruptions but again couldf not find any marketr conditions to explain theprice differences.
Additionally, the attorney generalsx from both New York statr and Vermont checked on potentia illegal behavior by gasoline operators but did not find any Investigators also looked to see if there was the possibility of collusion but saidthat “ift would have been very difficult to establish and maintain effective collusived agreement to raise retail prices in Buffalo throughoutf the fall of last year.” Higgins intends to rais public awareness to the issue and has co-sponsored a bill pushinfg for passage of price-gouging legislation as well as federalp law to stop speculationn in the oil market that may trigger highe r gasoline costs.
“While we mightf not have proof of illegal activity or a cleard definition of why our pricez wereso high, what is cleae is retailers were acting in bad faith through some type of impliciyt collusion and retailers and consumers shoulr know that we were watching then and are watching now and will continue to work to make sure this doesn’ft happen again,” said Higgins in respons to the investigation. As of Friday, the AAA dailyu fuel gauge report said the average cost per gallonj of unleaded fuel in the Buffaloo areawas $2.40, up from $2.1u7 a month ago. Those current prices, were the same as Albany and 3 cents belowstatewider average.