House passes bill to sue OPEC over oil prices

not sure what good will come of this...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved legislation on Tuesday allowing the Justice Department to sue OPEC members for limiting oil supplies and working together to set crude prices, but the White House threatened to veto the measure.

The bill would subject OPEC oil producers, including Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela, to the same antitrust laws that U.S. companies must follow.

The measure passed in a 324-84 vote, a big enough margin to override a presidential veto.

The legislation also creates a Justice Department task force to aggressively investigate gasoline price gouging and energy market manipulation.

"This bill guarantees that oil prices will reflect supply and demand economic rules, instead of wildly speculative and perhaps illegal activities," said Democratic Rep. Steve Kagen of Wisconsin, who sponsored the legislation.

The lawmaker said Americans "are at the mercy" of OPEC for how much they pay for gasoline, which this week hit a record average of $3.79 a gallon.

The White House opposes the bill, saying that targeting OPEC investment in the United States as a source for damage awards "would likely spur retaliatory action against American interests in those countries and lead to a reduction in oil available to U.S. refiners."

The administration said less oil going to refineries would limit available gasoline supplies and raise fuel prices.

Foreign investment in U.S. oil infrastructure has declined in the last decade. But the state-owned oil companies of several OPEC nations are owners of U.S. refineries, and those investments could be affected if the legislation becomes law, said Arlington, Virginia-based FBR Capital Markets Corp.

The bill also requires the Government Accountability Office to carryout a study on the effects of prior oil company mergers on energy prices.

The Senate would still have to approve the House measure.

The Senate previously approved similar legislation as part of a broad energy bill. However, the OPEC-suing provision was removed after White House opposition in order to get the underlying energy legislation signed into law.

source

Re: House passes bill to sue OPEC over oil prices

interesting theory... I dont think for one second OPEC is going to take that!

Re: House passes bill to sue OPEC over oil prices

How about instead of getting OPEC angrier they pull out of Iraq? That would lower the price of gas!

Re: House passes bill to sue OPEC over oil prices

Didn't Bush do something today to limit the supply of gas for our emergency reserves? I thought I saw that on News12.

Re: House passes bill to sue OPEC over oil prices

Re: House passes bill to sue OPEC over oil prices

Wasn't part of the unspoken reason we invaded Iraq so we can get some control over their oil supply...they should be giving us oil after all we have done for that country, all the money we have given them and all the men we have lost