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Pastimes : The Justa & Lars Honors Bob Brinker Investment Club -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Justa Werkenstiff who wrote (14333)	6/10/2000 12:17:00 PM
From: Justa Werkenstiff	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 15132

US and Refiners to Meet Monday About Midwest Prices Washington, June 9 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. government officials will sit down with major oil refiners Monday to discuss the ``unusually high prices of gasoline'' in Chicago and Milwaukee, they said. Refiners such as BP Amoco Plc and Exxon Mobil Corp. were asked yesterday by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Energy Department to meet in Washington to discuss why gasoline, especially cleaner-burning reformulated gasoline (RFG), costs more in the Midwest. ``Over the past week, gasoline prices have continued to climb, and there are inexplicable price differentials between RFG and conventional gasoline, especially considering the modest difference in the relative cost of producing RFG as compared to conventional gasoline,'' said EPA assistant administrator for air and radiation Bob Perciasepe and Energy Department acting policy director Melanie Kenderdine in a letter to eight refiners. ``In no other areas of the country using cleaner-burning RFG have we seen comparable increases,'' they said. Nationally, the cleaner gasoline was about 9 cents more expensive last week than conventional gasoline. In the Midwest, though, reformulated gasoline was 23 cents more, the EPA said. An EPA official said many of the refiners have committed themselves to attend the meeting on Monday at EPA headquarters. Illinois Prices House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois and other lawmakers from the state sent a letter to EPA Administrator Carol Browner Tuesday asking her to explain by June 27 why gasoline is so much more expensive in their state. They asked her to work with the Energy Department and Justice Department to examine ``possible causes for these high prices, and to take appropriate action'' to fix the disparity. ``We must know to what degree such circumstances as petroleum industry consolidation, pipeline distribution, the Unocal patent, and retail competition, or lack thereof, are contributing to the current situation,'' the letter said. The American Petroleum Institute said in a statement that there is ``no evidence that oil companies are over-charging consumers in the Midwest or anywhere else in the country.'' The oil industry group said the prices are a result of high crude oil prices and requirements for reformulated gasoline, which is more difficult and expensive to make. ``Our companies stand ready to cooperate in any investigation,'' API said. Concern about supplies of RFG have been raised in part because refiners have been fighting in the courts a Unocal Corp. patent that covers the production of cleaner-burning gasoline. The courts have ruled that companies must pay Unocal for each gallon of the gasoline that is produced using the process. The national average price of regular, self-serve gasoline reached a record $1.563 a gallon Monday, according to an Energy Department survey of 800 filling stations. Gasoline prices were highest in the Midwest, where a gallon of regular cost an average $1.646. Reformulated gasoline is selling today for about $2.05 a gallon in Milwaukee and $2.30 in Chicago, according to people at gasoline stations in those cities. Jun/09/2000 16:46 ET