January 05, 2015
Monday PM

Our fuel wholesaler for Southeast Alaska has now gone from outright crook to criminal. Visiting with friends from Haines over the New Year’s holiday I was greeted with the information that when Shannon asked her local retailer in Haines why the price of a gallon of gas was so obscenely high, she was told by the retailer that he had been advised that any effort on his part to reduce prices would result in his being cut off from all future gas deliveries. In other words one greedy pig has rigged fuel prices in SE Alaska for his sole personal benefit. This is a criminal conspiracy, and it is time to seriously consider putting this slimy one behind bars.

Before we do that, though, compel him to disgorge his illegal profits with double, triple, or even quadruple indemnification as punishment. Put this outfit out of business. They are not business people; they are crooks. This price gouging is repetitive behavior that will not stop with this guy. Put him out of business and replace him with someone who has some integrity. This guy has none.

Ketchikan's fuel wholesaler is a dictator who has imposed a massive tax on all SE Alaska residents. The repetitive damage he is doing at the base level represents tens of millions of dollars, conceivably more than $100 million, in price fixing rake offs; but the real damage is magnified far beyond that because of the damage to household incomes and to the economy at large. How many sales have SE Alaska businesses lost because their costs are so much higher than elsewhere? And a big part of that is fuel cost. Look at the tax this monster is imposing on the commercial fishing industry. I buy $1000 to $1500 worth of gas annually; they buy ten to 20 times that amount. Basically, this guy is gouging every fishing operation in SE Alaska for $5000 to $15,000 a pop annually with his price gouging. Everybody else does the heavy lifting, and he runs off with all the money.

Sarah Palin was not the worst governor this state has had; Sean Parnell was and is. As Mr. R.K. Rice has duly noted in a prior article, Parnell’s administration established a clear pattern of collusion in fixing gasoline prices but elected not to pursue it.

Mr. Walker, as the incoming governor of Alaska this is your first big test. Who are you going to be working for? The citizens of this state or the slime ball monopolists? This is your opportunity to let us know succinctly and with a promptitude that will surprise any and all of us in the private sector. If you intend more of the same, this will be a good indicator.

This is in fact Governor Walker's first major political issue. A lot of people will be watching how you handle it. The population of this state is aging, and the young people are moving away in droves. The price just keeps getting higher, but the wages don’t. There was a time when salaries were much higher here, but that is no longer the case. There are far better opportunities in many other places, and in all of those places the cost is nowhere near as high. And their salaries in many instances are higher than here. Your second major political issue should be undoing the freight monopoly that has been imposed on all of us.

As Alaskans and as U.S. citizens, we are entitled to the benefits of free enterprise as a matter of course. While tending to a sick friend this past fall, I watched as gas prices plummeted as much as 40 cents in a single week; from a high of $3.89 down to $1.85 a gallon. The average for the country is $2.19 a gallon according to GasBuddy.com (Jan. 05, 2015). In Haines I am told it is $4.30 a gallon; in Ketchikan there has been a token drop in price of 20 cents or so since June 2014. The average savings per family for 2014 has been reported as $1200 or more; the average savings for SE Alaskans is zero. One crook is stealing from all of us.

On behalf of the citizens of SE Alaska I call upon you as the incoming governor of this state to immediately upon assuming office forcefully resolve this giant rip off of the citizens and businesses of your state by using your attorney general’s office to bring civil and criminal charges against these monopolists, and, since this is interstate trade, to work with the U.S. Attorney General to end these horrid monopolies that are stealing us blind.

Actually, a really good first test to see what kind of man you are.

David G Hanger
Ketchikan, Alaska

Received January 04, 2015 - Published January 05, 2015

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