Courtesy of Benzinga
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s energy price task force is monitoring gasoline pump prices to make sure that any savings from lower crude oil prices are passed along to consumers, White House press secretary Jay Carney said Friday.
Carney told reporters that the task force is working with state Attorney General offices to investigate whether or not gas stations were decreasing their prices as quickly as they raised them during the most recent price run-up.
“We do note the steep drop in oil prices in the last couple of days,” Carney said. “And I would also note that one of the things the Attorney General task force will be looking at is coordinating with state attorneys general to make sure that we don’t have a what I’ve heard described as a ‘rockets-and-parachutes phenomenon’ where prices at the pump rocket up when oil prices rocket up, and yet they come down in a parachute fashion when oil prices go down.”
The task force was formed April 21 to focus on fraud in the energy markets. The Oil and Gas Price Fraud Working Group monitors oil and gas markets for potential violations of criminal or civil laws to safeguard against unlawful consumer harm. The task force came about after President Barack Obama asked Holder to work with other federal agencies and state governments to ensure that Americans are not gouged at the gasoline pump.
Nationwide, gas price averages are hovering around $4 per gallon. Surveys today showed the official price of gasoline was $3.984 a gallon, one tenth of a cent lower than the day before. This small decrease followed a nearly 10% drop in crude oil prices yesterday, prompting the latest government actions.
The high prices come at a bad time for the American economy, which is coming dangerously close to a negative feedback loop cycle. High gas prices cause consumers to spend less elsewhere. That drives the economy down, as employers place less orders, hire less workers, and delay new purchases. Lost in all this is the implication that the economy is down because of high gas prices, completing the circle.
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