By Tony McVeigh, Kentucky Public Radio
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wuky/local-wuky-969702.mp3
FRANKFORT, Ky. – Two economic experts battled it out Thursday in a day-long hearing in Frankfort in Kentucky's gas price gouging case against Marathon Petroleum.
The state is accusing Marathon of gasoline price gouging during a state of emergency declared on April 26th and still in effect. Peter Ashton, a consulting economist for the attorney general's office, says the price hikes were grossly in excess of pre-emergency prices.
"And furthermore, based on other data that I had looked at, I believe that cost increases could not justify those particular price increases."
But Marathon's economic expert says the company has to raise and lower prices in order to remain competitive and there's no proof any of the increases were excessive.
Ramsey Shehadeh doesn't deny the company uses commodity spot market prices to help make pricing decisions.
"In my experience, I've never seen a refiner that would not look at spot prices. As I mentioned before, they'll certainly consider their manufacturing costs in deciding how much crude to run, but in terms of setting the price for the gasoline they sell, they're always thinking about what their options are and when their outside option is the spot market, that's going to drive their rack price."
The state wants Franklin Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate to order Marathon to return gas prices to pre-emergency levels, but Wingate is still weighing the evidence.