House Democrats passed a bill on Thursday night that would let the Federal Trade Commission investigate price gouging allegations against energy companies. Gas prices have been at record highs in recent weeks, and while legitimate supply chain issues account for some of that, the gas companies are also pulling in record profits.
”At a time when people in my district and across the country are feeling the pain of high prices at the gas pump, Congress needs to be doing all we can to bring down costs,” Rep. Kim Schrier, one of the bill’s sponsors, said in a statement. “Gas prices in my neighborhood were already high at $5/ gallon two weeks ago. Now, for no apparent reason, prices are up another 10% in the last week, at $5.50/ gallon. Meanwhile, neither the price of a barrel of oil nor the cost of refining have changed appreciably. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) needs to have the power to investigate and crack down when there is evidence of real gouging.”
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Four Democrats joined Republicans in opposing the measure, which is guaranteed to be filibustered by Republicans in the Senate.
As U.S. consumers paid higher prices at the pump, Exxon’s profits in the first quarter of 2022 were more than double what they were in the first quarter of 2021. BP’s quarterly profit was its highest in more than a decade. But Republicans don’t want the Federal Trade Commission to be able to even investigate price-gouging.
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The Republican opposition to the government doing anything to rein in price-gouging by oil companies came a day after most House Republicans voted against a bill providing the Food and Drug Administration with $28 million in funding to help address the baby formula shortage. And it came two days after every Republican but one voted against a domestic terrorism bill in the wake of the racist mass shooting in Buffalo.
All this is, at base, because Republicans do not want the government to be effective at solving problems. They want the problems to continue so that they can use them as bludgeons against President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats. Gaining an advantage for November’s elections is desirable to Republicans in a way that ensuring babies are fed and people can afford gas to drive to work are simply not.
It’s true, Republicans are also not interested in limiting gas company profits, at least unless and until those gas companies do something outrageous like speak out for the rights of LGBTQ kids, and they’re not interested in addressing domestic terrorism or the guns often used to carry it out. Protecting Black people in a supermarket from a heavily armed white supremacist would not be a Republican priority. (Go figure.) But most of all, they just want to reap partisan benefit from things going badly in this country, and they’re willing to block potential solutions to keep things going badly.
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When you talk about inflation, definitely talk about corporate profits