VOICE-OVER: The Fuel Marketing Act is up for review this next legislative session, and some legislators say if the act is repealed, Utahns may see gas prices go down. Representative Derek Brown is one of the legislators who want to see the act repealed.
REPRESENTATIVE DEREK BROWN: “It’s an act that we passed about 30 years ago, which basically says you can’t sell gasoline below cost.” 1:43: “It’s one of the few laws where we basically say to the private sector: Here’s what you can sell your products for and here’s what you can’t sell the products for.”
VOICE-OVER: The act was created to protect the small, independent gas stations from being run out of business by the larger, name-brand gas stations. But Representative Brown thinks that the Fuel Marketing Act is unnecessary.
REPRESENTATIVE BROWN: “Their real concern is that some of these larger companies are going to come in and undercut their prices, they’ll go out of business, and then once they’re gone the large stations will then ratchet up their prices and we’ll be paying exorbitant amounts for gas. The reality is that just doesn’t happen. And what you really can do is look at the 13 states that have laws like ours, compare them with the 37 states that don’t and see if there’s a difference, and the reality is there really isn’t any difference.”
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