It’s not going to make your gas cheaper, but the Federal Trade Commission unveiled a pumped- up website last week aimed at educating consumers on crude-oil and gasoline issues.
The site (ftc.gov/ftc/oilgas) offers a new “gasoline column,” the first installment of which is titled “The FTC’s role in the gasoline industry,” plus a new consumer page offering fuel-savings advice (ftc.gov/savegas).
While some of the information is new, the site itself is not and continues to include information on the agency’s gas-price- monitoring project and congressional testimony related to oil and fuel-pricing issues.
With gas prices well above $3 a gallon in various parts of the country, lawmakers on Capitol Hill again are raising the specter of price gouging.
The House passed a bill Wednesday that would require the FTC to come up with a definition of price gouging.
No federal law defines or prohibits gouging, although many states have laws barring the practice.
“We are certainly aware of the intense interest on Capitol Hill and elsewhere around the country on gasoline prices. … We’re certainly keeping track of all these developments, but this effort to enhance the website and provide more information is really just more of the ongoing educational mission of the FTC,” said John Seesel, associate general counsel for energy at the agency.
