Bill > HB25

This bill amends the Alaska Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Act to prohibit refiners from selling or offering to sell certain energy resources at exorbitant or excessive prices within the state. Specifically, it targets motor fuel for vehicles and aircraft, fuel for space heating, and diesel fuel. A price is considered exorbitant or excessive if it is unreasonably high compared to the refiner's reasonable costs, including refining, transportation, and transaction costs. As a benchmark, a price is presumed to be excessive if it is more than 10 percent higher than the average wholesale price charged by refiners in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington for comparable energy resources, though refiners can rebut this presumption by proving additional reasonable costs, including those caused by a natural disaster. The bill empowers the attorney general to investigate violations and seek civil penalties, which can be as high as 10 times the economic benefit gained by the refiner or $50,000,000, whichever is greater. A "refiner" is defined as an entity that owns or controls a refinery producing these energy resources and has total annual sales exceeding 1,000,000 gallons of these products.