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 The commission put the rest of the blame on increased demand, less gasoline production because of refiners switching to ethanol, damages to refineries from hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 and other refinery outages.
FTC officials who investigated the price run-up said they "cannot definitively rule out all other contributing factors." But they concluded there was "no evidence that refiners conspired to restrict supply or otherwise violated the antitrust laws."
The investigation, requested by Bush, was aided by officials at the Justice and Energy departments.
By October 2006, the price had fallen to $2.18 a gallon. It is now about $2.75 a gallon.
The commission voted 4-1 to endorse the report. The lone holdout, Jon Leibowitz, said the FTC staff's theoretical modeling did not adequately reflect the real possibility of price manipulation.
"The oil industry, which posted record profits in 2006, should not view this report as in any way a vindication of its behavior," Leibowitz said in a statement on the commission's
online site.
"Commission staff identified some plausible justifications," he said. "But the question you ask determines the answer you get: Whatever theoretical justifications exist don't exclude the real world threat that there was profiteering at the expense of consumers."
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On the Web:
FTC report: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2007/08/gasprice.shtm
[Associated Press; by John
Heilprin]
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
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