By JAMES FINK
jfink@bizjournals.com | 716-541-1611

Charles Schumer simply had to check out his wallet this weekend to understand the impact of gas prices hovering at $4 per gallon.

New York's senior senator drove from his downstate home to Boston to pick up his daughter from college. The cost to fuel his Ford Fusion was $70 - each way.

"I felt like I was punched in the stomach," he said.

Schumer is joining ranks with several of his Senate colleagues to press the Federal Trade Commission to investigate U.S. oil refineries that, he alleges, are artificially cutting back gas stockpiles in an effort to keep prices high.

Western New York has some of the highest prices in the country, with gas averaging $3.99 a gallon. The national average is $3.79.

Meanwhile, profits for the five major U.S. oil refineries rose from 42 cents a gallon in January to 80 cents a gallon as recently as May 8.

"This evidence is not a smoking gun, but it does point to a lot of bows and arrows," Schumer said.

There are reports that oil reserves are abundant, he added.

"If the free market system was really working, gas prices would go up and down at the same rate," Schumer said during a Tuesday morning press conference at a Cheektowaga Sunoco gas station. "The numbers just don't add up."

He and his colleagues, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, wrote to the FTC asking for an investigation - and they want it done quickly.

The request is being made as oil industry analysts predict $5 gallons of gas by midsummer.

"This has to be done before it is too late," Schumer said.

Part of the problem is that, through a series of mergers, the major U.S. oil refineries have dropped from approximately 20 to five: Exxon Mobil, Shell Oil, BP, Chevron and ConocoPhillips.

"Those mergers were a huge mistake," Schumer said.

The investigation is separate from a a probe that President Obama ordered Attorney General Eric Holder and the Justice Department to undertake regarding rising gas prices.

The Holder report is more "long term," according to Schumer. "We want the oil industry to know we are looking at them."