[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 75 (Tuesday, May 8, 2007)]
[House]
[Page H4556]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        THE RISING PRICE OF GAS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 4, 2007, the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) is recognized 
during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. As I speak on the floor today, across America citizens 
are being gouged at the gas pump once again. Every year, as certain as 
Memorial Day is celebrated at the end of this month, the oil industry 
jacks up prices.
  On the west coast in Oregon, I paid $3.43 a gallon for regular in 
Springfield. My colleague, Greg Walden, paid $3.99 on the east side of 
the mountains. The local paper accounts for this by saying ``unexpected 
refinery maintenance.'' Hmm. Maybe they could schedule maintenance at a 
different time of year. No, that wouldn't be quite so profitable for 
the industry. In fact, the industry has been colluding for more than a 
decade to close down refinery capacity so they can have these wonderful 
price spikes and gouge American consumers.
  There was an industry memo back then saying how the refinery sector 
wasn't particularly profitable, but through mergers the industry has 
managed to do away with more than 100 refineries. Now we have a 
refinery shortage. And if they just close one down to sweep the floors, 
the price of gas goes up 20 cents a gallon and the industry execs cry 
all the way to the bank and to their bonuses. This has to stop. We have 
to get back in charge of this industry. We've got to break up these 
huge conglomerates. Start with a moratorium on further mergers. Break 
'em up. Impose a windfall profits tax. Unless they invest in more 
refinery capacity, unless they invest in new fuels or energy 
efficiency, confiscate the money from them through a windfall profits 
tax which they have taken from the American consumers through price-
gouging and reinvest it to bring down prices and make this country more 
energy-efficient in the future. We need both a short-term and a long-
term strategy to deal with this industry.
  We have to take on the OPEC cartel. Now, this President is all about 
free trade. All about free trade. He wants more free trade agreements. 
Seven of the members of OPEC are in the World Trade Organization, 
highly touted by this President as a rules-based trade organization to 
promote free trade. They are conspiring and colluding among themselves 
and with Big Oil to jack up the price of oil. That's illegal under the 
WTO. Why won't President Bush file a complaint against OPEC? Perhaps 
because he's a little too tight with the Saudis, the royal family that 
runs that country and others. And they obviously, as well as industry 
execs, are profiting immensely from this situation.
  We need to, as I said earlier, ban further mergers. My bill would 
establish a commission to study market power and suggest remedies to 
that. To me the simplest remedy is antitrust and to break up some of 
these giant conglomerates and again begin to bring a little bit of 
competition back to this industry.
  The windfall profits tax I mentioned earlier, impose a windfall 
profits tax on these folks and take that money and reinvest it in 
energy efficiency and new fuels and research unless they will spend the 
money on energy efficiency, new fuels, and refinery capacity which is 
needed in this country.
  If we don't take action, it isn't going to happen. ExxonMobil is 
making $4.6 million per hour, $109 million per day, $3.2 billion a 
month and $40 billion last year. One corporation. Last quarter they set 
yet another record. And you can bet with the price-gouging going on 
today, they're going to set yet another record. Every quarter is a new 
record. But the President talks about free market forces. These aren't 
free market forces. These people are conspiring to gouge the American 
consumers and drive up prices at the pump. We need real price relief 
soon. This Congress must act and the President must stop stonewalling 
and protecting his friends both domestically and internationally who 
are involved in the oil cartel.

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