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

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The probe was called for by Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo, and Sen. Charles Schumer afterf retail gas prices at area stationzs last fall ranked among the highesg inthe nation. At the same time, prices in most other U.S. metropolitabn areas were declining faster along with the priceof oil. In a letterr sent May 13 by FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz to the agency said after a careful andextensivw investigation, regulators could not find any evidence of illegal activityg in gasoline markets in any of the affected cities. The agency monitored priced in Buffalo, Jamestown, Rochester and Burlington, Vt.
“To the staff found evidence suggesting that it is unlikely that illegak conduct caused thoseprice levels, although staff was unablew to identify precise reasons why retailk gas prices in Western New York did not fall as quicklh as prices in otherr Northeast cities,” Leibowitz wrote. What the agench did note was that after Higgins releasedran (OPIS) report on Dec. 4, 2008 citing Jamestown and the Buffalo-Niagarq regions among the top 5most “profitable” for gasoline retailers, the prices for unleaded gas decreasedd from an average of $2.25 to $1.85 by the end of 2009.
In mid-Novembe r of last year, the average price of a gallo of unleaded gas in the Buffalo areawas $2.66 compared to the statewids average of $2.53 and the national averaged of $2.15. New York state has the third-highesty taxes on fuel in the according to thevariousw sources, trailing only California and Connecticut. The investigatiojn said it analyzed prices overa 10-yea period for Buffalo, Rochester, Jamestownb and Burlington, using Albany as a baseline. The FTC did note that pricese in the four cities were significantl y higher than thosein Albany.
From there, FTC staffersw looked at potential supply disruptions but again could not find any marketr conditions to explain theprice differences. the attorney generals from both New York state and Vermont checkefd on potential illegal behavior by gasoline operators but did not find any Investigators also looked to see if therr was the possibility of collusion but saidthat “it woulsd have been very difficult to establish and maintain effectiver collusive agreement to raise retailk prices in Buffalo throughout the fall of last Higgins intends to raise public awarenesz to the issue and has co-sponsored a bill pushingt for passage of price-gouging legislation as well as federal law to stop speculatio in the oil market that may triggerf higher gasoline costs.
“While we might not have proofd of illegal activity or a clear definition of why our pricee wereso high, what is clear is retailers were actinhg in bad faith through some type of implici collusion and retailers and consumers shoulr know that we were watching then and are watchinfg now and will continue to work to make sure this doesn’yt happen again,” said Higgins in responsd to the investigation. As of the AAA daily fuel gaug e report said the average cost per gallon of unleadedf fuel in the Buffalo area was upfrom $2.17 a month ago. Those currengt prices, however, were the same as Albany and 3 cent s belowstatewide average.