A Pennsylvania House panel is expected to take up discussion this week on a bill that would permit the state’s Attorney General to investigate complaints of price gouging during disasters and impose penalties.

Attorney General Tom Corbett told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review his office has received more than 1,500 complaints about skyrocketing fuel prices since Hurricane Katrina.

Senators voted by unanimous consent last month to forward the bill to the state’s House for further consideration. The House Consumer Affairs Committee is scheduled to take up the bill Wednesday, Oct. 26.

Sponsored by Sen. Mary Jo White, R-Franklin, the bill would prohibit “unconscionably excessive” pricing of such products as gasoline and diesel fuel during a declared state of emergency. It would expire 30 days after the declaration.

The measure – SB450 – would presume a vendor was price gouging if they could not explain a price increase of 20 percent or more over the average price for the same goods or services available in the affected area one week before an emergency was declared.

Anyone found in violation would face up to a $10,000 fine, per occurrence. Existing law limits fines to $1,000.

The rule would not apply to price increases caused by additional expenses, such as replacement costs, taxes and transportation.

Twenty-seven states already have some type of price gouging ban with many others pursuing their own rules.