Information Maintained by the Office of Code Revision Indiana Legislative Services Agency
09/15/2008 04:31:03 PM EDT
IC 4-6-9.1
Chapter 9.1. Price Gouging in Declared Emergencies

IC 4-6-9.1-1
Period for which emergency declared
Sec. 1. (a) Sections 1 through 7 of this chapter apply to the period during which an emergency is declared and the twenty-four (24) hours before the declaration by the governor under IC 10-14-3-12 or IC 10-14-3-13.
( b ) The definitions in IC 10-14-3 apply to this chapter.
As added by P.L.124-2002, SEC.1. Amended by P.L.2-2003, SEC.11.


IC 4-6-9.1-2
"Price gouging" defined
Sec. 2. For purposes of this chapter, "price gouging" means charging a consumer an unconscionable amount for the sale of fuel. Price gouging occurs if:
(1) the amount charged grossly exceeds the average price at which fuel was readily obtainable within the retailer's trade area during the seven (7) days immediately before the declaration of emergency; and
(2) the increase in the amount charged is not attributable to cost factors to the retailer, including replacement costs, taxes, and transportation costs incurred by the retailer.
As added by P.L.124-2002, SEC.1.


IC 4-6-9.1-3
Powers and duties of attorney general
Sec. 3. The attorney general has the following powers and duties regarding price gouging:
(1) To investigate complaints received claiming price gouging.
(2) To seek injunctive relief as appropriate.
(3) To seek restitution for victims of price gouging.
(4) To institute an action to levy and collect a civil penalty.
As added by P.L.124-2002, SEC.1.


IC 4-6-9.1-4
Use of information obtained in investigation
Sec. 4. (a) Information obtained during the attorney general's investigation under this chapter, including information from a person who responds to the investigation and designates the information as confidential, must be maintained as confidential until the investigation is completed by the attorney general and a course of action is determined. The attorney general may not make known in any manner any information obtained in the course of the investigation to persons other than those specified in subsection ©. Once the investigation is completed, if there is an agreed upon settlement or if charges are filed, the information becomes public.
( b ) The attorney general shall make available to the public, upon request, aggregate information concerning complaints of price

gouging. The aggregate data may not identify particular persons or locations under investigation.
( c ) For purposes of this section, references to the attorney general include other individuals designated in writing and acting on behalf of the attorney general during the investigation. A person designated shall preserve the confidentiality of information under subsection (a).
(d) A person who is served with a request for information, a subpoena to give testimony orally or in writing, or a request or order to produce books, papers, correspondence, memoranda, agreements, or other documents or records under this chapter may apply to any court for protection against abuse or hardship.
As added by P.L.124-2002, SEC.1.


IC 4-6-9.1-5
Action brought by attorney general
Sec. 5. If an investigation by the attorney general results in a finding of price gouging, the attorney general may bring an action in a circuit or superior court with jurisdiction in the county where the price gouging allegedly occurred. If the court finds that the retailer engaged in price gouging, the court may assess a civil penalty against the retailer. The civil penalty may not be more than one thousand dollars ($1,000) per transaction.
As added by P.L.124-2002, SEC.1.


IC 4-6-9.1-6
Civil penalties
Sec. 6. Civil penalties collected under section 6 of this chapter must be deposited in the state general fund.
As added by P.L.124-2002, SEC.1.


IC 4-6-9.1-7
Preemption of local government powers in price gouging emergencies
Sec. 7. This chapter preempts the power of local governments to regulate pricing of commodities under a declaration of emergency:
(1) under IC 10-14-3-12;
(2) under IC 10-14-3-13; or
(3) by a local government.
As added by P.L.124-2002, SEC.1. Amended by P.L.2-2003, SEC.12.

Considering we are usually 5-10 cents BELOW the national average, I would say MC fuel retailers are gouging.

Thanks for the info.

Also as an FYI, futures for gasoline are now under $2.50. Add in taxes and a little profit, and MC's gas prices should be about $3.10 to $3.20.

You really think so? That would mean that even prior to the arrival of Ike, we were probably being taken advantage of...just willingly so. Why does it take something like this to open our eyes?

I've also filed a complaint.

I like seeing the reports by SSider on the futures prices of gasoline.

We were down to $4.19 most places yesterday.

As of this morning (around 8:30am), Family Express at Coolspring & Franklin was at $4.09; Jewel was at $4.19.

Gas Shortage In the South Creates Panic, Long Lines
If Drivers Can Fill Up, They Get Sticker Shock

By Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 26, 2008; D01

Gasoline shortages hit towns across the southeastern United States this week, sparking panic buying, long lines and high prices at stations from the small towns of northeast Alabama to Charlotte in the wake of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

In Atlanta, half of the gasoline stations were closed, according to AAA, which said the supply disruptions had taken place along two major petroleum product pipelines that have operated well below capacity since the hurricanes knocked offshore oil production and several refineries out of service along the Gulf of Mexico.

Drivers in Charlotte reported lines with as many as 60 cars waiting to fill up late Wednesday night, and a community college in Asheville, N.C., where most of the 25,000 students commute, canceled classes and closed down Wednesday afternoon for the rest of the week. Shortages also hit Nashville, Knoxville and Spartanburg, S.C., AAA said.

Terrance Bragg, a chef in Charlotte, made it to work only because his grandfather drove from a town an hour away with a 5-gallon plastic container of fuel for him. Three of his co-workers called and said they couldn't make it.

"I drove past nine or ten gasoline stations that were out of gas," Bragg said. "I had my GPS up looking for any gas in the area, from the mom-and-pop places to the corporate gas stations. Nothing. They were all taped off."

Liz Clasen-Kelly, associate director of a homeless assistance center in Charlotte, took the bus to work yesterday. On Wednesday night, she and her husband checked five stations that had no gas, passed a long line backed up onto the interstate highway and chose not to wait at an open gas station with 50 to 60 cars still lined up after 11 p.m.

"If we had waited in that line, our car wouldn't have made it," she said, adding that the gauge was pointing to empty. The bus yesterday took her 45 minutes longer than usual. "It makes you realize how addicted you are to convenience," she said.

In Atlanta, Jonathan Tyson, a Douglasville, Ga., resident who works for a company that does training for auto and RV franchise dealerships, ran out of fuel while waiting an hour in a line about 60 cars long to fill up his Land Rover. A man from the car behind helped push Tyson's vehicle down the road.

"It was crazy," Tyson said. "People were standing on side of road with gas cans saying they'd pay the person to run a [credit] card through just to get gas so they didn't run out before they got up to the pump themselves."

The city government, which uses 10,000 gallons a day, barred the public from two stations to make sure it could keep municipal vehicles running. On Wednesday night with his fuel gauge at empty, Al T. Nottage, a senior communications specialist in the Atlanta mayor's office, looked for fuel at six stations, all closed, then called AAA and said he had run out of gasoline. It brought him two gallons, enough to get to work yesterday.

AAA spokesman John Townsend said that Colonial Pipeline, a leading supplier in the region, and the smaller Plantation Pipeline, which belongs to Kinder Morgan, were functioning below capacity because of lingering refinery problems along the Gulf coast. A spokesman for Colonial, whose Web site displays a news release from Sept. 10 before Hurricane Ike hit, did not return calls for comment.

The Energy Department said that as of Wednesday 63 percent, or 800,000 barrels a day, of production in the Gulf of Mexico was still shut down as were five refineries with a combined capacity of 1.2 million barrels a day. The refineries produce a half-million barrels of gasoline a day, or about 5 percent of the nation's total supplies. Other refineries are still working at less than full capacity. Hurricane Gustav landed Sept. 1, and Ike hit Sept. 13.

"The production loss is similar to what was lost after Hurricanes Rita and Katrina," said Anne Peebles, a Shell Oil spokeswoman. "This time the physical damage [to oil facilities] was not as great, but the down time with the storms hitting back to back is similar." She said that "more fuel is coming" as facilities gradually ramp up again, but "we do think that production availability will normalize in the next several weeks."

Townsend said that the Colonial pipeline normally carries 100 million gallons a day, traveling about 2,500 miles from Texas, Louisiana and Alabama to 267 marketing terminals across the East and Southeast. Although nearly 15 percent of the gas stations in Virginia were reporting outages last week, the Washington region has been able to tap into supplies from areas such as New Jersey and Pennsylvania, which can more readily obtain supplies from tanker and other pipelines. Earlier supply problems in Chattanooga, Tenn., and Tallahassee also had eased, he said.

Other areas of the country were not so fortunate. An Atlanta Exxon dealer said that his station's allocation was only 40 percent of normal.

Mike Thornburgh, a spokesperson at QuikTrip, said that half of the gasoline retailer's 111 Atlanta area stations were open, up from a quarter last weekend. He said that QuikTrip was trying to keep stores open near commuters and schools. He said he didn't know when things would return to normal.

"I can't give a concrete answer because I don't believe anybody knows," he said.

Public officials appealed for calm as it appeared that panic buying might exacerbate supply problems if motorists try to keep more fuel than usual in their tanks. The Environmental Protection Agency suspended regulations for antipollution additives to help ease the supply situation.

Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue provoked some angry comments on the Atlanta Journal Constitution Web site, which quoted him as saying that "there is ample fuel in the city" and that some of the panic was "self-induced."

"Perdue says we got ample gas supplies," wrote one reader. "Then why is it that every gas station in my area is out of gas. Some have been out for over 4 days."

Prices were high in cities hurt by shortages, though not as high as they were immediately after the hurricanes. In Charlotte, price ranged from $3.84 to a high of $4.31 a gallon for regular gasoline. AAA's Townsend said that travelers to the affected areas should "be prepared for sticker shock, Southern style."

Staff writer Binyamin Appelbaum and special correspondent Melanie Lasoff Levs in Atlanta contributed to this article.

We're down to $3.20 this morning. A friend of mine is a truck driver from TX. He said the refineries were only shut down for three days. The day before the storm, the day of, and the day after. He said there is no reason why gas shouldn't come way down. We're dropping a penny or two a day, so you guys should catch up to us soon.

Fingers crossed.....

Oil Recession: Analyst Foresees Oil at $40 a Barrel or Lower
Equidex President Phillip Gotthelf tells Bloomberg TV oil prices poised to drop much further.

By Jeff Poor
Business & Media Institute
10/7/2008 4:38:11 PM

Earlier this year, many voices in the media were warning for the worst when it came to the price of oil as economic uncertainty loomed ahead. One analyst even predicted in May that oil would hit $300 a barrel.

However, now that financial turmoil has plagued the markets, the price of oil has fallen from its $147-a-barrel high in June 2008 to around $90 a barrel on Oct. 7. Around its peak, many were forecasting oil in excess of $200 by the end of 2008, but since that time the bull market in commodities has slowed or ceased, as Equidex President Phillip Gotthelf pointed out on Bloomberg TV on Oct. 7.

“I think that the commodities really outlived their, their useful rallies because they’ve exceeded the elasticity of the consumer,” Gotthelf said. “And commodities are consumables, they’re not investments. They’re speculative equals sometimes, but they’re certainly not investments.”

According to Gotthelf, those commodities include oil, which he said was poised to go to $40 a barrel or lower in the wake of the global economic turmoil.

“I’m somewhat amused. Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) was forecasting $200 a barrel for oil,” Gotthelf said. “I see that their forecasts are getting more and more conservative. I said $200 a barrel was ridiculous. Even $150 I thought was ridiculous. We were looking at $24 a barrel in 2004. Everybody is now making comparisons in the financial sector to the implosion of stocks in 2002, 2003 – the last stock recession. Why shouldn’t we see oil return to $40, maybe even below $40 a barrel?”

If Gotthelf’s prediction were to come true, the price of a barrel of oil would reach a low point not seen in almost four years. The last time oil was at $40 a barrel was late 2004. At that time, the media were concerned about paying $2 a gallon for gas.

Gotthelf based his prediction on the decrease in demand – a result of the economic slowdown and changes in worldwide energy supply.

“Certainly we could [see $40 per barrel] because think about the fact that we’ve had what people are now calling demand destruction – a new term,” Gotthelf said. “Basically demand is declining because of the extreme economic conditions that were facing and because SUVs are very expensive to fill up. We’re switching our way of doing business in energy and you’re going to see that reflected in the decline of world consumption.”

Wow! I was going to brag cause we're at $3.06 and falling. I couldn't wait to tell you all that we are below $3 and Eric stole my thunder! Ha Ha!

Too bad Plymouth is too far a drive to make that price worth it, huh?

Wow! I was going to brag cause we're at $3.06 and falling. I couldn't wait to tell you all that we are below $3 and Eric stole my thunder! Ha Ha!

Too bad Plymouth is too far a drive to make that price worth it, huh?

I would probably need proof too living there with the prices what they've been!

Our gas is $2.98 and I just got a text from one of my truck driver friends. He is in Indy this morning and said gas there is $2.99.

So, if gas in Indy is $2.99, why is it still so high up north by you guys? I wonder what it is in Chicago right now?

So we are slowly getting to where we should be going. I think by Oct 1st we could see $3.25. (barring anything crazy happening.)

home : local news : local news
10/14/2008 11:32:00 AM Email this article • Print this article
Around 6 p.m. Monday, the Marathon station on Karwick Road posted regular gasoline prices of $2.98 per gallon. Kristin Miller/The News-Dispatch
Fuel prices fall to about $3 a gallon

By Kristin Miller
The News-Dispatch

Struggling economy helps lower oil pricing.

MICHIGAN CITY - It seems like cause for celebration.

As of 6 p.m. Monday, gasoline was $2.98 a gallon at some stations in Michigan City.

And the lower prices came just after the stock market made its worst decline in history last week.

But experts say the two don't have anything to do with one another.

Demand for oil across the globe has fallen, according to Purdue University-North Central business professor Daniel Rutledge.

"The world price of oil dropped to the $80 per barrel mark," Rutledge said, adding there are several reasons gasoline prices have dropped recently.

The demand for gasoline and diesel fuel has slackened partially because fewer vehicles are being purchased, he said. The economic slowdown is also a factor.

The make-up of gasoline is another cause. In the spring and summer, refineries build up summer blends. Rutledge said he understands that there are as many as 21 blends. Now that fall is here, the winter blend is being circulated.

"Winter blend inventories aren't as demanding as summer blends in terms of composition," Rutledge said.

Light, sweet crude for November delivery rose $3.49 before settling in at $81.19 a barrel Monday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after earlier rising as high as $82.52. The contract fell Friday $8.89 to $77.70, the lowest price since Sept. 10, 2007.

Falling oil prices have helped drive pump prices down sharply. A gallon of regular sank 4.1 cents overnight for a national average of $3.206, according to AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express. The average price per gallon in Indiana is $3.07.

Seven states are now seeing average prices below $3 a gallon, including Kansas, Missouri and Ohio. Gas prices should come down even more as U.S. Gulf Coast energy infrastructure continues ramping up after closures caused by Hurricane Ike.

But the United States is not the only country seeing a downturn, Rutledge said. China, France, Italy and the United Kingdom are in the midst of the same "problem," he said.

Investors are watching for signs that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries may cut production at a meeting in Vienna, Austria, Nov 18.

Iranian Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari on Saturday called for stability in the oil market, saying the biggest challenge now was a decline in oil demand because of a global economic recession.

"There won't likely be any overt cuts, but there could be an informal tweaking of production that could provide support for prices," said Victor Shum, an energy analyst at Purvin & Gertz in Singapore. "It's politically unacceptable for OPEC to make cuts in the middle of a global deceleration."

The fact that it's an election year seems not to have an effect on prices. In October and November 2004, gas was $1.52 and $1.45 per gallon, respectively. One year ago, gas was $3.12 per gallon, according to AAA's fuelgagereport.com.

Rutledge said he couldn't make a guess as to how much cheaper gas could become, now near the $3 mark.

But, he said, it could jump back to $4 per gallon by the first part of 2009.

"It's a roller coaster," he said.



The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Keep driving less!