SARASOTA - At Duke's BP in Sarasota, the price of regular grade gas hovered just below $4 a gallon today.
Customer Bill Novack said he does not feel a shortage because of Hurricane Ike is to blame.
"Hell no," Novack said. "A week ago [gas] was 15 cents cheaper."
Katie Duke, who owns the station and its convenience store, said she manages the pumps for McCarley Oil, the wholesaler that trucks in the product from BP.
"They set the gas prices," Duke said. "I get a phone call . . . and I go out and change it."
Representatives with McCarley Oil could not be reached today for comment. BP's Houston offices were closed because of the aftermath of Hurricane Ike.
Duke said she thinks lower prices may be on the way. A competing station a few miles from Duke's rolled back its regular gas by 22 cents today, And stations with much cheaper gas have run out completely.
According to the Florida Attorney General's Office, Hillsborough County tops the state in gas-gouging complaints.
The attorney general has submitted nearly 1,500 cases to the state's economic crime division, and of that number, 138 cases are in Hillsborough County. Leon County is the only other to have than 100 gas gouging cases. Eighty-one cases are from Pasco County, 57 from Polk County and 28 from both Manatee and Sarasota counties.
The state has given a deadline to oil companies and more than a dozen of the companies have one week to comply with the state's subpoenas about the price of gas.
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