Comments on: Idaho AG Opposes Retail Gas Gouging

By: Answers require information

Answers require information — Fri, 19 Feb 2021 15:19:58 +0000

The gas that we burn in our motors in Idaho is sourced from out of state. It is therefore interstate commerce. I am thinking that the price that the retailers pay is very, very regulated. How many times a week or month do they buy, and how is that price determined? Spot prices? Cost per barrel? A contract negotiated by their wholesalers? Understanding that would be helpful.

Without price restraints they will gouge to the bone. Those are their already historical actions. Gas is a commodity. It is not like selling donuts which are a discretionary consumer good. Which for, by the way, Maverick is asking $1.69 per maple bar.
Quit buying what is inside their building and there will be price competition. Otherwise, the owners are at their cabins, with their boats, in their new cars, on their new iPads. Their luxury homes were not enough.

By: Retail gas price gouging needs oversight

Retail gas price gouging needs oversight — Thu, 18 Feb 2021 18:29:10 +0000

The current problem of gas price gouging by the Idaho gas monopoly has come to the forefront with the huge increase during then Covid pandemic. However, Idahoans have been ripped off for over 50 years. How significant has the gouging been? The best example is the rise to multimillionaire status by our own John Jackson. John started with one small gas station in Homedale. Then he joined the gang, and his $$$ holdings rose to include hundreds of Jackson Convenience stores throughout the west. When Mr. Jackson had more money then he knew what to do with, he started his Jackson Jet fleet business. You’re welcome John and Jeff. The AG’s Office has said that they cannot find evidence of price fixing. For more nausea, the AG has said that the gas station businesses have a right to make a profit. So Mr Wasden and Senator Den Hartog, please work for a solution and get Idaho residents a $$$$$ refund from these pirates

By: Hey wait a minute

Hey wait a minute — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 21:40:33 +0000

Easterner, You should have left out your first two lines. By including them, you removed any doubt as to your own ignorance of the law and your lack of common sense.
Wasden’s “Guest Opinion” does not cite a single statute. So how can you say its more of a legal letter? Ignorance! Even a formal AG Opinion is distinguished as a non-binding opinion based on Idaho statutes and sometimes case law.This guest opinion is merely a way to inform the public. It’s a helpful awareness post as opposed to your derailment of facts.
“Time and time again” you sound like a reporter who knows very little, assumes a lot, and is flat out ignorant of the law.
Your dig about the legislature and guns and the Bible is especially lame. Stick to the facts – price gouging exists in Idaho, and it needs to be stopped!

By: Easterner

Easterner — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 19:17:46 +0000

Good points JJ.
If we apply the same to restaurants, my meal will now cost 5 times as much.
And all the restaurants quickly know the price change, so they all increase their prices to “increase their margins”. Fair enough?

As to the duration of an emergency, wartime comes to mind and more like December 7th. Four years, five or more- still an emergency!
Given that the emergency declaration law and the stay at home orders law do specifically address an epidemic, I would say the law was written for times like now.
As I read the statute citation it was created in 1927 (due to 1917-18 pandemic likely?).

“State of extreme emergency” means: (a) the —; or (b) the duly proclaimed existence of conditions of extreme peril to the safety of persons and property within the state, or any part thereof, caused by such conditions as air pollution, fire, flood, storm, EPIDEMIC, riot or earthquake, insurrection, breach of the peace,—”

Epidemic: is defined as “an outbreak of disease that spreads quickly and affects many individuals at the same time.”
Sound like 2020 to me.

https://legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/title46/t46ch6/sect46-601/

By: FunkHobo69

FunkHobo69 — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 17:15:35 +0000

I agree with what JJ said above. Governments should not have a say in what an appropriate level of margin or profit is for private businesses. This was not an emergency that required the use of gasoline as fuel to escape an impending disaster, e.g. a category 5 hurricane forecast to make landfall in Florida, requiring an immediate escape inland while gas stations charge desperate customers $25/gallon. In fact gasoline demand was suppressed due to the dictates of the same state gov’t, and I don’t recall gasoline ever being priced above the still relatively modest level of $3/gallon at any time in Boise during the last year. The gas retailers may have been using the larger margins on retail gas to cover their fixed costs and prepare for an extended economic downturn.

Sure, there are still workers out there who are required to commute in to a workplace every day who must buy gasoline. But how many were taking advantage of the stimmy checks and “enhanced” unemployment to goof off and take road trips out to various locations around the state? We had record use of our public lands in 2020, and many of those same areas got trashed out by heavy usage. Customers were still willing to pay the market price for discretionary usage.

By: western guy

western guy — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 16:43:32 +0000

‘McLean is worse…’ doesn’t read much. The initial news stories regarding this matter clearly stated that the $1.5 million remedy would be handled by reducing the pump price temporarily until the levied amount had been reached.

By: Erico49

Erico49 — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 14:11:21 +0000

The legislators don’t give a damn about my opinion unless it agrees with their preconceived opinions. While I’m here… where’s our property tax relief? They fled town last year by kicking that can down the road. And not a peep so far this year. Idiots too busy tilting at windmills.

By: Frank

Frank — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 12:40:11 +0000

Hey Paul PLUTO is no longer classified as a planet!

By: xx

xx — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 04:22:41 +0000

People working from home, not driving kids to school, not taking road trips, more electric cars on the road – looks like fear of a long term drop in profit may possibly be behind the lobbyists on this one? Trying to find a way to make up for losses?

By: JJ

JJ — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 01:34:43 +0000

I think the intent of no price gouging is to make sure businesses do not take advantage of consumers during an emergency, but I would also think the idea was most emergencies are regional or local, and short term in nature like recovering from a flood, tornado, wild fires, etc. I am not sure those who wrote the law envisioned a year long pandemic.

Given the context of a pandemic I have to agree the gas stations deserve some consideration on the margin. Gasoline is a commodity which relies on large volumes due to low margins. When the volume business goes away, you still have all the fixed costs and need more margin. Gas sales plummeted while everyone was staying home, not going on vacation, working from home, etc. Yet these gas stations still had all their overhead, property, employees, property taxes, utilities, etc. Remaining open and solvent for gas stations likely required higher margins due to drastically lower volumes.

For me it is not so much what their margins were, it is whether they colluded to keep prices high, as opposed to doing what retail business are supposed to do, that is compete against each other. The Federal Sherman Act does not regulate the prices that are to be charged, it prohibits the collusion among competitors to establish an artificial price that is out of balance of a free market.

I think the AG and Legislators should focus on any possible collusion and not be in the business of determining what is a reasonable margin.