Time To Drop Partisan Politics And Get Energy Relief To Consumers
May 8, 2006, With summer road trips only a few weeks away, Americans have good reason to be frustrated with gas prices that are climbing right along with the temperature. Today, Americans are paying twice as much for gasoline as they paid in 2001, while oil companies are making triple the profits they made in 2002.
One problem is that under current law, there is no federal prohibition against price gouging. This is unacceptable. With gas prices close to $3.00 a gallon, consumers have the right to know if they are paying a fair price for gas.
Last fall, after complaints of price gouging following hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the Energy and Commerce Committee debated the issue. As a senior member of the committee, I voted for an amendment to give the Federal Trade Commission strong authority to stop price gouging, not only for gasoline and diesel fuels, but also for natural gas, home heating oil and propane. This proposal would have penalized price gougers by charging them three times the amount of their unjust profits or up to $3 million per day. Unfortunately, the amendment failed in committee and later in the full House of Representatives on a party-line vote.
Congress should not relinquish its oversight responsibilities for the sake of partisan politics. In April, I joined nearly 100 of my colleagues in writing to the Speaker of the House and asking him to hold congressional hearings to investigate possible price gouging. My colleagues and I also asked the Speaker to bring up legislation to hold price gougers responsible for their actions.
On May 3, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 5253, which would give the federal government the authority to identify and punish price gouging. Although I am disappointed that the House took so long to act, I was pleased to vote for the bill. I am hopeful that the Senate will bring up this issue sooner rather than later so that consumers will have protection against price gougers.
The American people deserve better. Our nation needs a more balanced energy policy that will maximize our domestic energy resources, including clean and renewable sources of energy, and promote conservation and energy efficiency. Recent legislation in Congress has included some incentives for production and fewer for conservation. In reality, we need more of both.
In the long run, our country needs to remain a global leader in technological innovation and provide incentives to convert the best technologies for commercial use. As Ranking Member of the House Science Committee, I have introduced legislation to address these challenges. My bill establishes an agency within the U.S. Department of Energy modeled after the Department of Defense’s successful Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which was responsible for creating revolutionary technologies like unmanned and stealth aircraft and the Internet.
My bill directs Congress to fund innovative, out-of-the-box research projects with the goal of boosting our energy security and finding the next generation of energy technologies. The bill will promote research and development at industry, university and federal labs and will bridge the gap between laboratory research and practical applications.
Our energy problem is not a new one. It’s one we have been dealing with for many years. Unfortunately, in this nation we have a history of being outraged when prices are high and then forgetting our frustration as prices drop.
But this issue must be addressed sooner rather than later. With oil prices at more than $70 a barrel, we in Congress need to finally put aside partisanship and work together to get real relief to American consumers. And this is something I’ll continue to fight for.
