WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Senate could approve an amendment to the energy bill that would require a formal investigation by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) into whether gasoline prices are being artificially manipulated and if drivers are being gouged.
Passage of the amendment authored by Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) could occur later this week as the Senate continues its consideration of the energy bill, the senators said.
I think we need to know whether the high prices we are paying at the gasoline [image-nocss] pump are the result of legitimate markets or, as we saw with Enron in California several years ago, deliberate market manipulation. We need some answers, and we need them sooner rather than later, Dorgan said.
At the same time that rising gas prices are causing Michigan families to think about curtailing their summer vacations, oil companies are announcing all-time record profits, said Stabenow. A majority of Americans believe these skyrocketing gas prices are not fair. We owe it to the public to investigate and determine whether anti-competitive practices have led to these price hikes.
She added, The legislation directs that the FTC conduct an investigation to determine whether the price of gasoline is being manipulated by reducing refinery capacity or by any other form of market manipulation or price gouging practices.
Another amendment to the energy bill is being offered again by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) that would direct President Bush to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to add to the supply of gasoline and help mitigate rising prices, added a report by The Oakland Press.
John M. Griffin, executive director of the Associated Petroleum Industries of Michigan, welcomed the call for a federal investigation of the petroleum industry. We have been investigated time and time again by the FTC and they have always determined that the cause of gas price increases was market factors, he told the newspaper. The petroleum industry does not set prices, the market sets prices.
Griffin said the petroleum industry supports provisions in the energy bill that would increase domestic oil production in Alaska, offshore and in the west.
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