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KS Officials Warn of Disaster Profiteering

By Associated Press/Submitted

09/01/2017

KS Lt. Governor Jeff Colyer

(AP/Submitted)--Gasoline prices rose several cents overnight amid continuing fears of shortages in Texas and other states in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey’s strike on the Gulf Coast.

According to AAA, the national average for a gallon of regular gas rose in one day from $2.45 Thursday to $2.52 Friday.

At least two major pipelines — one that ships gasoline across the southern United States and to New York, and another that flows north to Chicago — have been slowed or stopped because of flooding and damage.

Due to the rising cost, a joint statement is released by Kansas Lieutenant Governor Jeff Colyer and Attorney General Derek Schmidt.

The pair wants “to alert Kansans that the Kansas statute prohibiting profiteering from a disaster is in effect as a result of the presidential disaster declaration in the hurricane-stricken region along the Gulf Coast. While price increases caused by the disruption in supply are to be expected, it is illegal in Kansas to ‘profiteer from a disaster’ by unjustifiably raising the price of motor fuel. Under Kansas law, a price increase that exceeds 25 percent compared with the price the day before the disaster is suspect and subject to scrutiny, and a seller that has increased prices by that amount or more may be required to provide documentation that the increase is due to the seller’s increased cost of obtaining the fuel.”

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