The Sconi

As gasoline prices in Wisconsin have soared, the federal government has refused to release records on price gouging investigations to a nonprofit group, the Functional Government Initiative (FGI).

On June 6, the initiative announced it had filed a lawsuit seeking the records from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

“Prices at the pump are at their highest level ever, even before the summer driving season, and the expectation is that there’s no end in sight," FGI spokesman Peter McGinnis said. "The government has continued to point fingers while dismissing any hint that its policies may have contributed to the crisis. If the government really is using its resources to investigate and punish energy producers rather than incentivize them to ease Americans’ pain at the pump, the public deserves to know."

FGI claimed in the suit that the FTC violated transparency obligations surrounding the announcement of a possible price gouging investigation into the oil and gas industry, a recent press release said.

In November 2021, with gas prices and inflation already well on the rise, President Joe Biden asked the FTC to investigate possible illegal profiteering or price gouging by the oil and gas firms, FGI said. This was not the first instance the administration responded to crises by calling on the FTC to conduct investigations into related private sector entities.

Among the first of the president's investigations was the meat packing industry, followed by oil and gas, and most recently the baby formula industry amid the infant food shortage crisis. FGI noted that FTC investigations have been the administration’s go-to play in these situations.

In seeking to discover the conversations and facts regarding the probe, FGI began looking into the oil and gas FTC investigation in early January of this year, the release said. But in March, FGI's request for documents was denied. The FTC asserted that every record was part of a deliberative and pre-decisional process. But even after FGI’s successful appeal of this decision, the FTC has continued to deny FGI access to the records.

FGI is a nonpartisan organization that works to demand transparency and integrity from government agencies and elected officials. The group has repeatedly expressed concerns over the federal government’s perplexing responses and actions taken in attempting to reduce gas prices.

According to the American Automobile Association (AAA), the average price for gas in Wisconsin is $4.85 per gallon. At this time last year, it was $2.91.