Yes, Western North Carolina, you got gouged

The Fayetteville newspaper has the staff report:

RALEIGH — Owners of a Circle B gas station in Fayetteville will repay consumers for overpriced gas, N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper announced Monday.

Under an agreement signed by Circle B President Dilip K. Gala, the gas station will refund $1.50 per gallon to consumers who bought gas by credit card during the relevant period.

Cooper contends when Hurricane Ike was poised to strike the Gulf Coast on Sept. 12 — and gasoline producers shut down operations to protect their equipment and employees from the storm — the Circle B gas station on McPherson Church Road at Morganton Road in Fayetteville marked up its prices from $3.99 to $5.49 per gallon.

That morning, Gov. Mike Easley declared a state of “abnormal market disruption” under North Carolina law, which charged the attorney general with enforcing a price-gouging statute.

That means that Circle B overcharged consumers by more than $1,000 between 2 and 7 p.m. that day, Cooper’s office said.

The refunds will appear as credits to consumers’ credit cards, Cooper’s office said. Consumers who paid cash have 30 days to present a receipt or other proof of purchase to the station for a refund.

Circle B must provide the Attorney General’s Office with a sworn accounting of all refunds. Any amount that is unable to be returned to consumers will go to a special fund to provide energy assistance to people in Cumberland County.

The company will also pay $5,000 in civil penalties to the state, which goes to North Carolina schools.

“When families are struggling to make ends meet, the last thing they need is to be gouged at the pump,” Cooper said. “These stations are making things right for consumers and other stations should do the same.”

Cooper’s office reached a similar settlement with the owner of the Big D gas stations, with five locations in Murphy, Marble and Hayesville, which are in western North Carolina.