[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3646 Introduced in House (IH)]







109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3646

         To provide consumers with relief from high gas prices.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 2, 2005

 Mr. Pallone introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
         To provide consumers with relief from high gas prices.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Gas Price Relief and Oil 
Conservation Act of 2005''.

SEC. 2. LIMITS ON WHOLESALE GASOLINE PRICES AND OIL COMPANY PROFITS.

    The Secretary of Energy shall promulgate regulations not later than 
30 days after the date of enactment of this Act to--
            (1) prevent companies from raising wholesale prices for 
        gasoline more than once every 24 hours; and
            (2) limit, immediately and until the end of fiscal year 
        2006, the profits of oil companies that sell gasoline on the 
        wholesale market to no more than the average of their profits 
        during the five-year period from fiscal year 2001 through 
        fiscal year 2005.

SEC. 3. CONSERVATION OF OIL.

    For purposes of reducing waste of oil and decreasing demand for 
foreign oil, not later than 6 months after the date of enactment of 
this Act, appropriate Federal Departments and agencies, as identified 
by the President, shall propose voluntary, regulatory, and other 
actions sufficient to reduce demand for oil in the United States by at 
least 1,000,000 barrels per day from projected demand for oil in 2013.

SEC. 4. INVESTIGATION OF PRICE GOUGING IN THE WAKE OF HURRICANE 
              KATRINA.

    The Federal Trade Commission shall commence an investigation to 
determine whether price gouging has occurred in the wholesale and 
retail gasoline markets in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and whether 
consolidation in the markets has led to higher prices for consumers. 
The Federal Trade Commission shall then recommend enforcement and 
regulatory actions to be taken by the Secretary of Energy and the 
Attorney General.
                                 <all>