State House Speaker Andrew Romanoff asked residents to keep their eyes out for “unreasonable jumps” in gas prices that may signal price gouging.
“Gas price gouging is not illegal under Colorado law, and we think it should be,” Romanoff said Saturday.
The Denver Democrat met with reporters to talk about encouraging citizens to be watchdogs of the local energy market.
Romanoff said he was asking the state attorney general and the Public Utilities Commission to investigate the problem of gouging and to recommend a way to combat it.
He defined price gouging as price increases that are “out of whack” with cost increases.
“We don’t know if it’s going on or not,” he added.
Chuck Malick, spokesman for CoPIRG, a Colorado public interest group, said oil companies are taking advantage of consumers as prices at the pump skyrocket.
He said the evidence is in the rising price of stocks for oil producers such as ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco and Conoco- Phillips.
Romanoff said he will ask the Transportation Legislative Review Committee, which meets in two weeks, to discuss solutions to the problem of high gas prices. He also asked people to conserve gas by walking and biking more, driving more slowly and keeping tires properly inflated.
Bert Marshall, a government retiree from Traverse City, Mich., confronted the problem firsthand Saturday at a gas station along Interstate 70 in Denver. He basically pumped away his vacation into the tank of his Winnebago. The tab: $108 and some change.
The road trip to San Diego to visit family had been planned for months, and there were too many commitments to turn back when gas shot above $3 a gallon this week.
“We had planned on betting a little money in Las Vegas,” he said, giggling before he could reach the punchline. “I think I’ve already lost my money.”
Staff writer Joey Bunch contributed to this report.
Staff writer Abbe Smith can be reached at 303-820-1201 or asmith@denverpost.com.
