By Laura Weber, Michigan Public Radio Network
LANSING, MI – About a dozen gas stations--six of them in Lansing--have agreed to allow Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox to look at their finances if and when he suspects them of price gouging.
The targeted stations targeted all raised gas prices to more than $5 a gallon when Hurricane Ike whipped around oil refineries last Fall in Texas.
John Sellek is a spokesman for Mike Cox. He says the attorney general's office received hundreds of calls regarding price gouging in Michigan during Hurricane Ike. "So in some instances we had complaints where the amount on the sign was very high when the amount they were charging at the pump was within reason," he said. "And that was for whatever reason that was their method to stop customers from worrying about it."
Sellek says the attorney general wants to send a message to other gas stations that price gouging is unacceptable.