Takin' it up the gas...

There is price gouging going on...

Eight Democratic governors asked two weeks ago for an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission, which already had begun the probe. "To price-gouge consumers under normal circumstances is dishonest enough, but to make money off of the severe misfortune of others is downright immoral," the governors said in a letter to the commission.

Lingle has asked Attorney General Mark Bennett to join other state attorneys general in supporting the FTC investigation of possible unlawful conduct. The Senate has approved a $1 million amendment to an appropriations bill to pay for the investigation.

In a letter to the FTC, the governors cited a study by Don Nichols, a University of Wisconsin economist, concluding that for gas prices to reach $3 a gallon, crude oil prices would have to reach $95 a barrel, about $30 more than they have remained in recent weeks.