Bush II; Day 563: Gas prices...totally legitimate, y'hear?

So, the FTC released its report on gas prices and announced confidently that everything was kosher in big oil land. I guess that would have nothing to do with their boss, Dubya, stating confidently that he was sure everything was kosher.

The blogger at Thoughts of an Average Woman notices the same little questionable details in the article that I did, like:

But, wait! There's more to their convoluted justification! Apparently some of these companies WERE price gouging, but only technically not really.

The commission said it found 15 examples of pricing by refineries, wholesale companies and retailers that technically fit the definition of "price gouging." (It defined gouging as a price increase in the month after the hurricanes that was not attributable to the additional costs caused by weather-related damage.) But it said that in nearly all of those instances, there was probably not gouging because of regional or local trends that justified the higher prices.

Ah, technically fit the definition of price gouging, but "probably not" price gouging. I feel all better now.

No wonder the president has shifted his focus back to gay marriage. Nothing to see here, just move along now. (And given the recent articles trumpeting how Americans do seem to be driving just as much as ever despite the rising gas prices, apparently that's just what we're doing!)

Posted by elisa at June 4, 2006 04:53 PM | Jobs/Economy/Taxes