NY AG Launches Gas Price Gouging Probe

New York Attorney General Letitia James is investigating whether the oil industry is gas price gouging, CNN reports.

It is the first such wide-ranging probe and comes as leading Democrats have been questioning whether oil companies are taking advantage of the 8.5% inflation in the United States to increase prices at the pump above fair market value.

James' office is looking at the entire gas supply chain — from production at oil refineries, to shipping companies, to pipeline operators, to oil storage terminals, and all the way down to the gas pump.

New York has a price-gouging statute that gives the state the authority to conduct such an investigation into "unconscionably exessive" and "extreme" prices.