By RACHEL PARKER DICKERSON
LOG CABIN STAFF WRITER

Attorney General Dustin McDaniel announced earlier this week his office was issuing more than 30 subpoenas to retailers across the state seeking information regarding their increase in gas prices. Each recipient was given 20 days to respond.

Last week local gas prices climbed as word arrived that Hurricane Ike would cause a supply interruption and Gov. Mike Beebe declared an emergency. McDaniel invited the public to call, e-mail or text his office if they believed they saw evidence of price gouging and as a result received more than 1,450 calls and more than 2,400 text messages and e-mails, according to a press release.

"In the event I find sufficient evidence of illegal price gouging, I will be making demand upon those entities to make restitution and pay penalties for the violations," McDaniel said in the press release. "If they refuse, they will be sued."

According to Gabe Holmstrom, spokesman for the attorney general's office, only one local company received a subpoena Arkansas Travel Senters Inc., which is affiliated with stations in Choctaw, Greenbrier, Damascus, Conway and Marshall. Sharon Burchfield, accountant and general manager for Arkansas Travel Senters, reached at the office in Conway, said the company did receive a letter from the attorney general. She noted the company only operates the Marshall store. The company owns the other properties but leases the stations out. The business owners set the prices, she said. The Conway station is Horton's Sinclair, and the Greenbrier station is Pumps Food Mart, she said.

"We paid over $4 a gallon for the gas we bought," she said. "People are assuming that anyone who charges over $4 a gallon is price gouging, but that's not the case. I didn't set the prices at all the stores we're affiliated with. At our Marshall store, we went up to $4.59, but we paid $4.35 for it without credit card costs. And now we're selling for $3.89 and losing over 40 cents a gallon. We also have a fuel brokerage that we deliver gas to the other stores. We sell it to them."

"I'm not saying the attorney general is not doing right by checking people, but the public is assuming people are price gouging when they're not," she added.

Holmstrom said, "It's important to note this is a request for information. Everyone is innocent until proven guilty. It is not outside the realm of possibility that they did nothing wrong."

He said anyone found guilty of price gouging may be charged a fine of up to $10,000 per instance.

(Staff writer Rachel Parker Dickerson can be reached by e-mail at rachel.dickerson@thecabin.net or by phone at 505-1277. Send us your news at www.thecabin.net/submit)

User Comments:

No Comments have been posted.