Gasoline stocks are increasing but still low.
Posted on 05/23/2007 1:33:04 PM PDT by libertarianPA
WASHINGTON - The House, eager to do something about record high gasoline prices in advance of the Memorial Day weekend, voted narrowly Wednesday to approve stiff penalties for those found guilty of gasoline price gouging.
The bill directs the Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department to go after oil companies, traders or retail operators if they take "unfair advantage" or charge "unconscionably excessive" prices for gasoline and other fuels.
The White House called the measure a form of price controls that could result in fuel shortages. It said President Bush would be urged to veto the legislation should it pass Congress.
The bill needed the approval of two-thirds of the members of the House because the leadership considered it under an expedited legislative process. Thus, the 284-141 vote was only one over the threshold for passage. A similar measure is being considered by the Senate.
The bill would for the first time create a federal law making energy price gouging illegal. It would cover not only gasoline, but also other fuels such as natural gas and heating oil.
Rep. Bart Stupak (news, bio, voting record), D-Mich., its chief sponsor, in urging his colleagues to support the bill said the issue was whether "to side with Big Oil (or) ... side with consumers who are being ripped off at the gas pump."
But Stupak was forced to soften the bill so that he could get it passed by requiring a president to first declare an energy emergency before the anti-gouging law could be enforced. Oil-state Democrats had wanted such limits.
The bill calls for criminal penalties of up to $150 million for corporations and up to $2 million and a jail sentence of up to 10 years for individuals found to be engaged in price gouging.
Opponents said the legislation was too vague and amounts to price controls.
"I don't know what `unconscionably excessive' means," Rep. Joe Barton (news, bio, voting record), R-Texas, complained, referring to a phrase that would trigger a price gouging prosecution.
Barton said today's high gasoline prices are the result of supply and demand and not price gouging. "Demand has gone up and supply has not gone up. ... and the price has gone up," said Barton.
The White House said the administration "strongly opposes" the bill and the president would be urged to veto it if it passes Congress.
It "would harm consumers, the very people the bill is touted to protect," said a White House statement to lawmakers. It said price gouging legislation would amount to "price controls and in some cases bring back long gas lines reminiscent of the 1970s."
Oil company lobbyists have argued that when there are tight markets and rising prices, a vague gouging definition would inhibit refiners and retailers from adding supplies for fear of being taken to court.
"Mom and Pop grocer and gasoline station owners can't wonder what every court is going to decide," said Rep. Roy Blunt (news, bio, voting record), R-Mo., the minority whip. He said the law would create "undue hardship for ... people trying to make a living."
But the bill's supporters argued that states can't combat energy price gouging, leaving motorists at the whim of arbitrary oil company pricing. Twenty-nine states currently have energy price gouging laws, but they vary in detail and under in terms of what conditions would trigger them.
“This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer” Will Rogers
Very educational chart, but how in the world could you possible see a Memorial Day surge on a chart that has 5 year increments. You would need to see weekly details in order to discern it.
If a Memorial day surge in gas prices happens every year, it should be easy to spot.
It it's hard to spot, it's probably because it doesn't exist.
Gas prices are set in the commodities futures market. Anybody who thinks the petroleum companies are gouging is free to participate in the plunder by buying or selling petroleum futures.
Hillary turned $1000 into $100,000 in ten months in the cattle futures market, after all.
You're the one who made the assertion. An honest person wouldn't make a statement like that if he didn't have evidence. Where's your evidence?
We’re at $3.65 here in mid-Michigan. Even some of my normally rational, conservative friends are screaming that the govt. should do something.
There's lots of competition. Oil is produced in a world market. The problem with refineries is getting regulatory approval. Even if the regulatory agencies were to allow a new refinery, the NIMBY's locate near a proposed site will use the courts to slow down the process. People want nearby oil refineries about as much as they want a nearby nuclear generation plant. What's really needed are new refineries not located on the US gulf coast. We were lucky in 1995 that Hurricane Rita didn't strike the Houston ship channel just weeks after Katrina shut down the refineries near New Orleans. If that had happened there would have been much worse shortages.
Watcha doing interjecting ACTUAL FACTS into a political argument/discussion.....LOL...
There are no Mom and Pop grocery and gas stations left...
There is no competition...You pay what I say, is the policy...
Anything that will stop these legalized robbers is fine with me...
ABOLISH THE FEDERAL GAS TAX!
NIMBYS?
I drove by the pump on the morning of May 15th and it was $3.15, by that afternoon it was $3.35. I drove by the pump this yesterday and it was $3.59. That's a surge. A very similar thing happened last year. I really don't have the data, but it does seem to be a yearly ritual.
Gasoline stocks are increasing but still low.
But you knew that.
Tsunami and Gravitas are vacationing together in Tahiti.
It was not the Alaska Pipeline and it is not an oil leak. It is a water leak at one of several gathering centers that feed the pipeline. The pipeline did not stop operating.
You'd make a great global warming advocate: a couple of anecdotal observations and suddenly there's a scientific consensus!
;^)
Here you go. You won't find your assumption like you expect.
U.S. Regular All Formulations Retail Gasoline Prices
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/hist/mg_rt_usw.htm
On a monthly basis, a summer run up is not very common.
Not In My Back Yard.
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