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Democrats Want More Investigations When We Need Solutions
May 9, 2007 - As gas prices continue to increase, the Democrats have again renewed their call for price gouging legislation. Only last year, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigated allegations of price gouging and market manipulation by refiners. [Federal Trade Commission, “Investigation of Gasoline Price Manipulation and Post-Katrina Gasoline Price Increases,” Spring 2006] The Commission investigated whether refiners manipulate prices by restricting supply, altering their product output, or diverting refined gas overseas rather than selling it in the U.S. The FTC investigation “revealed no evidence to suggest that refiners manipulated prices through any of these means.”
While the report dismissed evidence of price gouging, it pointed to a lack of refinery capacity as a problem. The report concluded that domestic refinery capacity has “not kept pace with rising demand over the same period.”
In case the Democrats missed it, the report repeated their conclusion that they could find no evidence of price gouging numerous times.
• The report concluded that “companies operated their refineries at full sustainable utilization rates.”
• “Our investigation uncovered no evidence indicating that refiners make product output decisions to affect the market price of gasoline.”
• “The evidence collected in this investigation indicated that firms behaved competitively.”
We need solutions:
• Republicans introduced legislation to streamline permitting to build new refineries, and we were blocked by Democrats.
• Republicans introduced legislation to incentivize building new refineries, and we were blocked by Democrats.
• Republicans introduced legislation to reduce the number of boutique blends of gasoline, and we were blocked by Democrats.
• Now the Democrats have to do more than block legislation—they have to solve problems.
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