[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 16]
[House]
[Pages 21895-21896]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             PRICE GOUGING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Stupak) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. STUPAK. Mr. Speaker, I would like to talk about the markup we had 
last night in the Committee on Energy and Commerce on the energy bill. 
The purpose of the energy bill being brought forth by the Republican 
majority is to address price gouging. We would like to see the price of 
gasoline go down; and certainly with the excessive profits being 
demonstrated by the oil companies, especially the refinery companies, 
we have to do something instead of being gouged at the gas pump.
  So last night the committee worked some 16 hours, until well after 
midnight. What we found was this. This chart was in The Washington Post 
last Sunday. The price of a gallon of gas in 1 year, the price to take 
it out of the ground, domestic and foreign countries pump crude from 
the ground, has increased 46 percent in 12 months.
  The refiners, refineries process crude oil and a variety of products, 
including gasoline. In 1 year, their profit or their increase is 255 
percent.
  Down here are the distributors. They ship the gasoline from the 
terminal by truck to the gas station. Their cost has only gone up 5 
percent. The end result is in the last 12 months, gas has gone up 64 
percent for the American consumer. Even State, Federal, and local taxes 
have only gone up 2 pennies, a negligible increase.
  When Members look at the chart, if we want to try to control the 
price of gasoline, you have to look at the crude oil producers and 
definitely the refiners at a 255 percent increase in their costs and 
price to a gallon of gas in the last 12 months.
  So what happened last night in committee?
  The Democrats said let us take a look at the Republican bill that we 
just saw. What they did was this, and we almost defeated it. It was a 
26-24 vote. We lost by two votes. It is a bill we will be discussing 
next week on the floor.
  The Republicans said we are not going to go after the producers; they 
can make a 46 percent profit in 12 months. We are not going to go after 
the refiner; they can make a 255 percent increase profit in 12 months. 
We are going after the gas station dealer, the one at 5 percent. If 
they increase their profits more than 10 percent, we are going after 
the gas station operators, but not all gas station operators, only ones 
located in the area where the President has declared a disaster.
  The Republican bill basically says this, we have two disasters in 
this country, Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita. So parts of Texas, 
Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, they cannot increase their price 
for gasoline. But the rest of the Nation and north Louisiana, north 
Alabama, north Mississippi and north and west Texas, they can still 
increase their prices, no control. They can gouge 255 percent, 46 
percent and that is okay under our bill. We are only concerned about 
the gas station owner who has the least amount to say about the cost of 
a gallon of gas.
  So once again Big Oil wins out. Big refineries win out, and the poor 
person trying to make a penny off a gallon of gas at the gas station is 
going to get nailed by the majority party's legislation.
  The Democratic side has our legislation, Free Us From Price Gouging. 
In our bill we apply all of the way down the chain here every type of 
oil product: home heating oil, propane, natural gas, gasoline. It all 
comes under our price gouging legislation. We apply it to producers, 
refiners, and retailers. We take them all into consideration. We apply 
our price gouging to the entire Nation.
  This winter the Midwest is going to pay a 71 percent increase in the 
price of natural gas. Underneath the Republican bill, there is nothing 
you can do about it because it only applies to gasoline and diesel. 
Under the Democratic bill, we can see if there is excessive

[[Page 21896]]

profits, then you have a right to do something about price gouging.
  Under the Democrats' bill, we are going to have the FTC define what 
price gouging is and what factors go into it and then apply it to the 
facts of this case. We are after excessive profits like 255 percent in 
12 months or 46 percent in 12 months, not the person who makes 5 
percent in 12 months. And we want it to apply throughout the Nation, 
not just at the time of disaster and in the area affected by the 
disaster.
  We provide the FTC with the right and authority to watch market 
manipulation. The majority party is silent on that fact.

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