A new group has begun collecting signatures in support of a long-delayed proposal in the D.C. Council that targets one man who owns roughly half of the city’s gas stations.
The group, D.C./Mid Atlantic Affordable Gasoline Coalition, wants lower gas prices in the District, where prices average about 20- to 30-cents-per gallon more than in the Maryland or Virginia suburbs. Gas station operators who have to buy fuel from station owner Joe Mamo say Mamo is price gouging them, forcing them to charge more at the pump.
Mamo has been unsuccesfully sued in Maryland and the District and has pending litigation in Virginia. His attorney said a small group of gas station operators are doing the price gouging and turning more than $1 in profit per gallon. The attorney, Al Alfano, says those station operators tried to buy their stations from Exxon in 2007, but Mamo slipped in and did it first.
The D.C. Council bill targeting Mamo would ban someone from owning and operating a gas station and from requiring station operators to buy fuel from the station owner. Both law changes apply to Mamo. The bill was introduced earlier this year and a vote on it has been delayed until January.
