A Golden lawmaker is pursuing legislation that would make price-gouging illegal in Colorado, while Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., has called for a state investigation of gouging on gasoline prices.
Democratic state Rep. Gwyn Green said she hopes to work with Attorney General John Suthers to craft a bill for this winter’s legislative session to make gouging illegal, as it is in some other states.
DeGette sent a letter Thursday to Suthers requesting a probe of record-high gasoline prices in the state.
She asked him to bring enforcement action through the Colorado Consumer Protection Act in lieu of an anti-gouging statute.
Suthers’ office isn’t coming out in support of either effort.
“We’re way ahead of (DeGette) on this issue because we’ve been monitoring gasoline prices since Hurricane Katrina,” said spokesman Jason Dunn. “We’re very familiar with this issue.”
Green said a state anti-gouging law would be an important protection for Colorado consumers.
“I think Colorado really needs to have that,” she said. “We have something like it for medicine prices. But we need to have a comprehensive bill for price-gouging.”
She said she intends to meet with officials in the state’s petroleum industry as she pursues the bill.
“My hope is that we can work together on something,” she said. “I think honest business people don’t want price gouging.”
Suthers isn’t sure that a Colorado law, if it were to look like laws elsewhere, would be very useful in the marketplace.
“Most price-gouging statutes that you look at in other states require some declaration of an emergency situation,” he said.
If people think gas stations in their communities are conspiring to artificially raise prices, that already is illegal in Colorado, Suthers said.
DeGette said gasoline price spikes since Hurricane Katrina endanger Colorado’s economic health.
“The higher gasoline prices, especially coupled with higher home-heating prices we will see this winter, could have a real and negative impact,” DeGette said in a statement.
“We need to do everything we can to make sure that gas prices Coloradans are paying are legitimate and do not attempt to take advantage of the disaster to increase profits at our expense.”
Dunn said the office is compiling consumer complaints but has seen no indication of gouging or criminal collusion among gasoline retailers.
“Our information suggests that the reasons for high gasoline prices are market conditions, not price-gouging,” Dunn said.
Consumers can leave complaints about gasoline prices or other issues at the attorney general’s Colorado Consumer Line, 800-222-4444.
Staff writer Jim Hughes can be reached at 303-820-1244 or jhughes@denverpost.com.
