Senator Cantwell (WA) plans to run against the oil companies.
Cantwell goes after gas price gougers
By LEAH BETH WARD
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC
Sen. Maria Cantwell made good on her recent promise to go after big oil companies by introducing a proposal Tuesday to outlaw "proven price gougers."
The legislation would give the president power to declare national energy emergencies with fines of up to $3 million a day and criminal penalties, including imprisonment, for violators.
"Just yesterday, we saw oil set the new record for a one-day spike in prices" Cantwell, D-Wash., said in a press release, referring to Monday's $4.39 a barrel jump to $67.39, the largest one-day gain since 1983.
A member of the Senate Energy and Commerce committees, Cantwell said oil companies "know we don't have a plan to protect American consumers."
In Washington state, gas prices are averaging about $2.90 a gallon, according to the federal Energy Information Administration, about 90 cents more than last year at this time and 17 cents higher than before Hurricane Katrina.
In Yakima, a gallon of regular unleaded was about $2.95 on Tuesday, according to AAA. That compares with $2.67 a month ago and $2.01 a year ago.
Under the proposed legislation, price gouging would be defined based on a standard used in New York state law which prohibits "unconscionably excessive" prices, according to Cantwell.
But Juan R. Palomo, spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based American Petroleum Institute with 400 members from the oil and gas industry, expressed skepticism that gouging can be fairly defined. "Nobody really knows what it is," Palomo said.
Crude oil prices have been driven up by international factors that upset the volatile system of supply and demand, he said.
"Anytime there is disruption anywhere in world, there is always a concern by those who buy and sell crude that they may not have enough to provide their clients. So they start buying more to assure they have supply. That's what's been going on," he said.
Cantwell's proposal would direct the Federal Trade Commission to focus enforcement on oil companies with more than $500 million in annual revenues. It would also give states new authority to investigate retail gas prices. Twenty-eight states have such power now. Washington state is not among them.
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