No Mercy For Price Gouging In Mississippi

JACKSON, Miss. -- Mississippi’s Attorney General said there will be no mercy for price gouging.

Mississippi’s Speaker of the House Billy McCoy and other House members on Thursday urged Gov. Haley Barbour and Attorney General Jim Hood to be vigilant about rising gasoline prices with the possible arrival of Hurricane Gustav.

Gasoline prices have risen in the last 24 to 48 hours at locations across Mississippi, McCoy said, with some increases as high as 25 cents per gallon. Long lines have also begun to form at stations. Some business operators said the reason was worry over the availability of gasoline, should Gustav hit the Gulf Coast region.

Hood said that his office has had one report of gas going up 25 cents in Brookhaven. During a news conference Thursday, Hood said that he has asked the governor to declare a state of emergency, which he expects will happen sometime Thursday.

Mississippi's price gouging statute only goes into effect when a disaster declaration has been issued for a particular region of the state by the governor or appropriate agency under his direction, McCoy said. It appears that in order to circumvent the statute retailers have already begun raising prices in anticipation of a hurricane reaching the Gulf Coast region, he said.

"If distributors and retailers want to price gouge Mississippians in light of weather reports, before a disaster is even declared, I am certain the Legislature will take action in January to protect consumers to ensure this does not happen again," Rep. Bobby Moak of Brookhaven said. "That may mean legislation to stay price increases when a low pressure system develops in the Atlantic during hurricane season. That may seem a bit extreme, but evidently that is the course taken by many retailers in the state, since they have not received price increases from wholesalers or petroleum facilities providing goods to them yet have raised prices on a whim."

The Attorney General’s consumer protection division is monitoring gas prices in Mississippi’s coastal communities, Hood said.

Hood asked residents who suspect price gouging at gas stations, hotels or even building supply companies to take a picture and e-mail it to the Attorney General’s office or to call 1-800-281-4418. Hood said that investigators will man the hot line this weekend and will be out checking prices.