{"id":1303,"date":"2026-07-07T22:36:33","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T17:36:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=1303"},"modified":"2026-07-07T22:36:33","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T17:36:33","slug":"trump-team-calls-on-state-attorneys-general-to-investigate-high-gas-prices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=1303","title":{"rendered":"Trump team calls on state attorneys general to investigate high gas prices"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/twt-thumbs.washtimes.com\/media\/image\/2026\/06\/14\/US_Gas_Prices__45_2_s1440x960.jpg?f72536d07237fdd262042ae8f5e6e6de3b865f3c\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/trump\/\">Trump<\/a> administration wants state attorneys general to join federal investigators in probing alleged antitrust and consumer protection violations causing high <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/gas-prices\/\">gas prices<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In a letter last week, Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward Jr. and FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson urged state law enforcement to join in investigating purported illegal practices.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S.-Israeli war against Iran rattled the global energy market. President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/trump\/\">Trump<\/a> signed a preliminary deal with Iran last month to cease hostilities for 60 days and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n<p>Prices at the pump soared during the four-month conflict, surpassing $4 a gallon on average.<\/p>\n<p>The national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/us\/\">U.S.<\/a> hovered around $3.80 when the letter was sent, up from $2.98 when the war started.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlthough crude oil prices are now dropping rapidly, far too much of that price cut is being withheld from Americans when they pay for gasoline,\u201d the Friday letter reads.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/trump\/\">Trump<\/a> said on social media in late June that he instructed the Justice Department to \u201cimmediately\u201d begin investigating price gouging, adding that \u201cbig Oil Companies are not dropping their price at the pump commensurate with the sharply lower prices they are paying for Oil.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside>\n<\/aside>\n<p>While the DOJ\u2019s Antitrust Division and FTC don\u2019t enforce laws aimed specifically at price gouging, over three dozen states and the District of Columbia have laws targeting price gouging during periods of market disruption or emergency. Mr. Woodward and Mr. Ferguson encouraged states to review whether enforcement is warranted under those laws.<\/p>\n<p>The state attorneys general were advised to use \u201call tools available\u201d to investigate and prosecute any misconduct \u2014 particularly violations of state antitrust and consumer protection statutes \u2014 causing price increases.<\/p>\n<p>                        <a name=\"pagebreak\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Warning energy companies, Mr. Woodward said the Antitrust Division \u201cwill use all available tools to ensure that companies are held accountable for unlawfully manipulating the market.\u201d<\/p>\n<section class=\"author-contact-section\">\n<\/section><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Trump administration wants state attorneys general to join federal investigators in probing alleged antitrust and consumer protection violations causing high gas prices. In a letter last week, Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward Jr. and FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson urged state law enforcement to join in investigating purported illegal practices. The U.S.-Israeli war against Iran&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1304,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/twt-thumbs.washtimes.com\/media\/image\/2026\/06\/14\/US_Gas_Prices__45_2_c0-218-5594-3481_s1200x700.jpg?86340501464350c72f6e0810dc450995b4a3a52d","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}