The title has absolutely no meaning whatsoever but the capitalization indicates that these are company names … get it? Michael Giberson:
On May 12, 2015 Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway filed a lawsuit against Marathon Petroleum Company alleging Marathon has engaged in anti-competitive practices that cause higher gasoline prices for Kentucky consumers. In making the announcement Conway said he has tried over and over to get the Federal Trade Commission or U.S. Department of Justice interested in the case, but they have declined to join efforts.
This isn’t the first time a Kentucky Attorney General has gone after Marathon over gasoline prices in the state. On May 13, 2011, AG Conway charged Marathon violated Kentucky’s price-gouging law after floods struck Western Kentucky. On May 10, 2007, then-AG Greg Stumbo filed suit against Marathon alleging price gouging after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck the Gulf Coast in late 2005.
Notice a pattern? Every four years during the second week in May Kentucky Attorneys General take on Marathon over gasoline prices.
What else happens every four years in May in Kentucky? Primary elections for state offices. In 2007 Stumbo was a candidate for Lt. Governor in the Democratic Primary held on May 22nd. In 2011 Conway was a candidate for re-election as AG in the Democratic Primary held on May 17th. This year Conway was a candidate for the Governor’s office in the Democratic Primary held on May 19th.
Nobody in Kentucky pays attention to state elections until after the Kentucky Derby, and that gives candidates only two weeks or so before the primary to make a splash. What better way to show voters you are on their side than an opportunistic attack on an oil company?
I conclude that the primary reason for quadrennial gasoline price-gouging charges against Marathon in Kentucky is the state’s Democratic Primary.
I like this line "Conway said he has tried over and over to get the Federal Trade Commission or U.S. Department of Justice interested in the case, but they have declined to join efforts." I can only imagine the magnitude of the teasing and ribbing the Ky AG gets around the water cooler at the FTC.
This issue is so important that I'm hopping in the car tomorrow for some field research. Here is what you see as you cross the river from West Virginia to Kentucky (or, about an hour before my first Ale8):
If I still drove that way, that is. These days I go through the Cumberland Gap, just like Daniel Boone, if I can talk my family into risking car sickness as the car goes up and down, up and down, the hills and around and around and around and around the hills.
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