Speaker Hastert and Senate Majority Leader Frist Letter Calling for Administration Investigation of Potential Gas Price Gouging

Speaker Hastert and Senate Majority Leader Frist Letter Calling for Administration Investigation of Potential Gas Price Gouging

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) today sent a joint letter to President George W. Bush urging him to direct the U.S. Attorney General and the Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission to investigate any potential gasoline price gouging or energy market speculation that could be contributing to high gasoline prices. The following are excerpts from the letter:

"Anyone who is trying to take advantage of this situation while American families are forced into making tough choices over whether to fill up their cars or severely cut back their budgets should be investigated and prosecuted. Therefore, we believe that Federal law enforcement agencies and regulators should take every available step to ensure that all Federal laws protecting American consumers from price-fixing, collusion, gouging and other anti-competitive practices are vigorously enforced.

"Given the severity of the current situation regarding gas prices, we believe that the Attorney General and the Federal Trade Commission should devote all necessary resources to expedited review of complaints of price gouging against wholesalers or retailers of gasoline and other distillates.

"We believe that protecting American consumers in these unprecedented market conditions is of paramount importance."

http://speaker.house.gov/library/energy/060424GasPriceGouging.shtml