Owners of a Plymouth Township gas station have until next Monday to explain the high cost of fuel during the recent gas shortage.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Plymouth Township resident, said that her office received reports that the BP Gas station at 38600 Ann Arbor Road, just east of Interstate 275, was charging prices nearly $1 more per gallon of fuel than other stations in the area.
Nessel said that an investigator from her office went to the station which was selling unleaded gas for $3.899 and premium for $4.899 per gallon, prices that were, in fact, about $1 more than other local stations. Nessel said that representatives at the gas station refused to offer any explanation for the prices to the investigator, prompting her office to issue a cease and desist order against the station on May 27.
The high prices followed reports of gas shortages due to the computer attack on the Colonial Pipeline which caused temporary gas shortages throughout several southern states. That shortage did not directly impact Michigan gas availability, according to Nessel's office.
The complaint from the state attorney's office accuses the Plymouth BP station of fueling anxiety, creating the risk of an artificial price inflation in the community and most likely engaging in unfair trade practice.
Owners of the station have 10 business days from the May 27 cease and desist order to respond or face legal actions which could include a civil lawsuit. or a formal state investigation.
