This will come as no surprise to those who understand the energy economy. It also will not satisfy those who hate and fear the energy industry, or prefer to cynically demonize the industry for political advantage.
Federal regulators investigating the oil companies' behavior in the wake of last summer's hurricanes found no evidence the industry tried to manipulate prices.Posted by Alan at May 23, 2006 07:01 AMAnd while the Federal Trade Commission did find isolated examples of what lawmakers defined as "price-gouging" throughout the gasoline supply chain, agency officials concluded virtually all of the incidents could be explained away by market forces.
"Evidence gathered during our investigation indicated that the conduct of firms in response to the supply shocks caused by the hurricanes was consistent with competition," the FTC said in a report released Monday.
The oil industry, which by its count has been investigated no less than 30 times over the last two decades, met the FTC report with much relief.
"It doesn't surprise me that the Bush administration hasn't found any evidence of price-gouging at the gasoline pump," said Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass. "The Bush Administration is uniquely handicapped when it comes to defending the public from price-gouging because it doesn't want to embarrass its friends in Big Oil."