Barton: Consumers Have A Right To Protection from Energy Ripoffs WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, issued the following statement today on the House floor in support of H.R. 5253, the Federal Energy Price Protection Act of 2006: “Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. “Americans are again seeing spikes at the gas pumps with prices reaching over $3 a gallon all over the country. This morning I stopped by the 7-Eleven at Second and Glebe Road in Arlington, Virginia because there were no prices posted on the sign outside the station. They didn’t have any gasoline to sell at any price. We need to do something, not only to bring these prices down but we need to do something to make sure there is adequate supplies available at every service station in the country that serves the American driving public. “Three-dollar-a-gallon gasoline may mean nothing to some people, but it sure means something to most, and everything to the poorest of our society that literally have to have gasoline to get back and forth to work and it’s a big part of their budget. Soaring gasoline prices drain the budgets of the working families who rely on cars to get their kids to school and themselves to work. If the spikes in gasoline prices are due to anything other than market conditions, consumers have a right to count on us, the government, for protection from ripoffs. “H.R. 5253, sponsored by Congresswoman Heather Wilson of New Mexico, the bill that we’re considering right now, prohibits price-gouging in the sale of gasoline, diesel fuel, crude oil and home heating oil. While price-fixing, collusion and other anti-competitive practices are currently illegal, there is no federal statutory prohibition on the books against price-gouging. Nobody has really defined at the federal level exactly what it is yet. It’s true that we all think we know price gouging when we see it, but that’s not the sort of definition that a prosecutor can take to a judge or jury. We’re not here today to say something is just awful and somebody ought to stop it. We’re here to put the gougers out of business, if there are gougers, or behind bars. “Last October, the House passed anti-price-gouging provisions in the GAS Act. Like the provision in that act, the GAS Act, the legislation before us today provides an explicit federal prohibition on gasoline price gouging treating it as an unfair trade practice under the Federal Trade Commision Act. It would also provide for additional enforcement in that it gives the United States attorney general, the Federal Trade Commission, and state attorneys general spell out the authority to enforce against price gouging at any time, not just in times of a major disaster. It provides for greater civil penalties and even criminal penalties in some cases for the most serious offenses. “The legislation will ensure that the definition of price gouging promulgated by the FTC rulemaking does not cover spikes in gas prices that are caused by market conditions. Committee hearings have demonstrated that when artificial regulation supplants normal supply and demand as the primary means of pricing a commodity, the result is market distortions and shortages. Ask those of us who were lining up for gas in the mid- and late-1970s. “We’re also not here today in pursuit of consequences, unintended and otherwise, that makes it tough for people to get to work and school. Price spikes are a scourge, but dry pumps are a catastrophe. As I pointed out this morning at Second and Glebe Road in Arlington, Virginia, there was no gas at any price at the 7-Eleven service station. I know the difference and I will strenuously oppose any policies that choke off the flow of gasoline to drivers. We want to have effective enforcement against scams without interfering with the efficient functioning of the market. In my opinion, H.R. 5253 does that. I urge my colleagues to support this important piece of consumer protection legislation. “Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.” ####