Sen. Karen Keiser, D-Des Moines, is calling for Attorney General Rob McKenna to investigate whether oil companies selling in Washington are price-gouging.

Washingtonians have seen gas prices rise 29 percent in three months, Keiser said, despite what should be minimal transportation, refining and blending costs.

After all, the state is a major receiving point for Alaskan crude oil. Washington has five refineries, capable of processing 576,000 barrels of oil a day.

Yet anyone looking for a disparity in gas prices need only look east, Keiser said. In Idaho -- with no facilities to receive crude oil and no refineries to process it -- she said gas prices have risen only 17 percent in the same period of time.

And while part of the surge in prices has been blamed nationally on a changeover to blended ethanol fuels, she said, Washington has no ethanol requirement yet. In Montana, which does, gas prices rose only 20 percent in the same period.

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