[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 85 (Wednesday, May 23, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H5625-H5626]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               IT'S TIME TO STOP PRICE GOUGING BY BIG OIL

  (Mr. DeFAZIO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Madam Speaker, while Memorial Day is the traditional 
beginning of the summer vacation and travel season for all Americans, 
it's going to

[[Page H5626]]

be a gloomy day across America. No, I'm not a weather forecaster. It's 
going to be a gloomy day because of record extortionate and manipulated 
prices at the pump. Guess what? Crude oil prices are down over a year 
ago, but somehow gas is up 50 cents a gallon at the pump. How is that? 
The refineries are making four times, four times their normal margin on 
refining. Why is that? They said, oh, well, gosh, we couldn't have 
known people were going to start buying gas around Memorial Day. We had 
to close down some of the refineries to maintain them and to clean 
them. Does Exxon translate into Enron? Remember when Enron was doing 
the same thing in California? High demand, shut down the generating 
plants. Exxon, high demand, shut down the refineries.
  It's time to stop the price gouging by Big Oil. Break them up. They 
aren't competitive, they're colluding.

                          ____________________