Officials probe charges of gasoline-price gouging

— -- Officials in North Carolina, Texas and Florida are investigating claims of price gouging as gasoline prices soared across large swaths of the nation in the wake of Hurricane Ike.

Gasoline prices edged up further Tuesday even as oil prices fell another 5% to a seven-month low on weak global demand and a strengthening dollar. "I don't think I've ever seen as much of a disconnect," says Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service.

The nationwide average price for a gallon of regular gasoline was $3.85 Tuesday, up 1.2 cents since Monday and about 20 cents the past week, AAA says. Gas prices have spiked as Ike, which tore through Texas last weekend, shut down about 20% of the nation's oil refining capacity. Hardest hit: the Southeast, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest, which receive their gasoline from the Gulf region.

But consumers say some stations are taking advantage of the price jumps. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said Tuesday his office has gotten hundreds of complaints about price gouging for gasoline as well as lodging, food and generators.

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum has issued subpoenas to four companies after receiving several hundred price-gouging complaints. And North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper subpoenaed seven North Carolina gas stations allegedly charging at least $5.49 a gallon.

"There's no excuse for ripping off consumers who are already hurting from high gas prices," he says.

Samuel Duncan, president of Duncan Oil, which operates a Big D convenience store in Murphy, N.C., that was targeted by Cooper, says he charged $4.99 a gallon for regular gasoline over the weekend only after the wholesale price he pays rose $1.86 to $5.56. "It's totally erroneous charges," he says.

Also dismissing the gouging claim was Jeff Lenard of the National Association of Convenience Stores. He says there are huge disparities in gasoline prices among stations in the same town. With gasoline in short supply because of the refinery outages, stations affiliated with major brands, such as ExxonMobil and Chevron, are more likely to get deliveries and at sharply lower prices, he says.