{"id":30039,"date":"2023-12-22T22:07:26","date_gmt":"2023-12-23T05:07:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/attorney-general-to-investigate-high-fuel-prices-in-farmington\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:09:43","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:09:43","slug":"attorney-general-to-investigate-high-fuel-prices-in-farmington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/attorney-general-to-investigate-high-fuel-prices-in-farmington\/","title":{"rendered":"Attorney general to investigate high fuel prices in Farmington"},"content":{"rendered":"San Juan County has highest prices in the state, according to AAA\n

\"Allen
Allen Hilton, 22, of Farmington, pumps gas on Dec. 22, 2023 at Smith's, while his brother Cannon Hilton watches.<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The New Mexico Attorney General\u2019s Office confirmed Monday that it is investigating potential gas gouging in San Juan County.<\/p>\n

The confirmation comes after Farmington Mayor Nate Duckett wrote a letter to the attorney general and requested the investigation, saying that prices are the \u201cbiggest issue\u201d for Farmington residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m getting pictures. I\u2019m getting emails. City Hall is taking phone calls,\u201d Duckett said. \u201cPeople are just frustrated.\u201d<\/p>\n

The issue is that gas prices are more than $1 higher in Farmington than in Albuquerque.<\/p>\n

\u201cHistorically we\u2019ve been told it\u2019s transportation costs from Albuquerque to Farmington that cause our fuel costs to be higher per gallon. It doesn\u2019t cost a $1.10 per gallon to bring fuel to Farmington,\u201d Duckett said.<\/p>\n

\"Speedway
Speedway Gas prices on Dec. 22 in Farmington.<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Tony DiGiacomo who was filling his gas tank Friday at a 7-2-11, echoed Duckett\u2019s sentiments.<\/p>\n

\u201cOther areas have to truck it in and don\u2019t pay as high prices. That\u2019s an excuse, and not a good one,\u201d DiGiacomo said.<\/p>\n

The national average for gasoline on Dec. 21 was $3.12 per gallon, and the New Mexico average was $2.95. In San Juan County, the average price on Thursday was $3.62, which was higher than both the national and state average, according to AAA.<\/p>\n

Prices in McKinley County, which is San Juan County\u2019s neighbor to the south, were coming in at $2.98, and in Rio Arriba County, the county\u2019s neighbor to east, prices were $2.71, according to AAA.<\/p>\n

In fact, AAA reported that San Juan County has the highest gas prices in the entire state of New Mexico, higher even than Santa Fe, which has an average of $2.82 per gallon.<\/p>\n

\"Gas
Gas prices at 7-2-11 on Dec. 22, 2023 in Farmington.<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cFarmington prices are higher, and I never understood that,\u201d DiGiacomo said.<\/p>\n

A college student home for the holidays was surprised by the prices.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been in college and just got back to Farmington. I\u2019m having to pay for gas and the prices are higher than in Utah,\u201d said Allen Hilton, 22, a student at BYU in Provo, who was pumping gas at Smith\u2019s. He guessed the cost would be $39 to fill up, it ended up costing him $55.<\/p>\n

Hilton said all prices are going up, and gas just adds to it. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of stuff to calculate. Rent is going up; gas is going up. The only thing keeping me afloat is hanging onto scholarships.\u201d<\/p>\n

DiGiacomo said high prices are a \u201cglobal issue,\u201d but he questioned the high prices in Farmington.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know my community is looking for answers and looking for somebody to lead the charge. We can collectively as a town provide our feedback to the fuel stations and the companies that operate them,\u201d Duckett said, adding people in the community also can reach out to the Attorney General\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can confirm that we are investigating this matter,\u201d New Mexico Attorney General\u2019s Deputy Communications Director Ashley Sterling said in a Dec. 18 email.<\/p>\n

\"Smith's
Smith's gas prices on Friday in Farmington.<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Duckett said he also heard from the AG\u2019s office, telling him an investigation had been done during Hector Balderas\u2019 term as attorney general, and now Raul Torres would be looking into the same matter.<\/p>\n

DiGiacomo thought \u201cit was awesome\u201d the AG\u2019s office is doing an investigation. \u201cIt\u2019s well overdo,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m getting daily contact from individuals, who are so frustrated,\u201d Ducket said, adding he did the math, and with gas prices the way they are in San Juan County, he will be paying $1,500 dollars more per year than families in Albuquerque with a three-car household.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope the AG\u2019s office is taking these complaints seriously, and I hope they do a thorough investigation that ends up with us paying a more fair price for fuel,\u201d Duckett said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

San Juan County has highest prices in the state, according to AAA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30040,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-30039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30039"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80944,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30039\/revisions\/80944"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30039"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=30039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}