As part of an ongoing push to protect consumers, Assemblyman Steve Hawley (R,I,C-Batavia) has been meeting with local gas station owners to discuss the varying prices drivers pay at the pump. The assemblyman announced that, in light of the attorney general’s report indicating that price gouging is not occurring in the region, business owners have seen a fluctuation in the wholesale price of gasoline, leading to a fluctuation in the price for consumers as well.

“Residents have grown weary of the difference in gas prices between nearby stations from county to county,” said Hawley. “After requesting and receiving three different investigations from the attorney general’s office over the last five years into varying prices, it has become clear that zone pricing has led to the discrepancy rather than any sort of price gouging by business owners. All businesses are at the mercy of the free market, and gas stations are no exception to that rule. As the cost of gasoline continues to rise and fall on the international market, so, too, will the price we pay at the pump.”