March 24, 2022

Duckworth Introduces Bill to Make Gas Price Gouging Illegal, Help Protect Americans from Unnecessary Price Increases

 

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) today introduced legislation that would help prevent the oil industry from engaging in gasoline price gouging. Specifically, the Gas Price Gouging Prevention Act would make it unlawful under the Federal Trade Commission Act for any person to sell gasoline, at wholesale or retail, during a period of an international crisis affecting the oil markets, at a price that is unconscionably excessive and indicates that the seller is taking unfair advantage of the circumstances to increase prices unreasonably. Duckworth discussed the introduction of this bill at today’s U.S. Senate Environment & Public Works (EPW) Committee Hearing,

“The price of gas is unreasonably high and is causing unnecessary financial pain for Americans all across the country,” Duckworth said. “I will not allow any corporation to use Putin’s war of choice against Ukraine as an excuse to excessively increase the price of gas. My new bill would help prevent this abuse of power and help working families keep more of their hard-earned dollars.”

After the U.S. banned the import of Russian oil after their attack on Ukraine, Big Oil has chosen to hike up prices instead of boosting production to meet the needs of consumers.

Earlier this month, Senator Duckworth sent a letter requesting President Joe Biden to direct U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to establish and chair a Gasoline Price Gouging Enforcement Task Force to carefully monitor and investigate oil and gas markets for potential violations of criminal or civil laws, including gasoline price gouging. Duckworth also helped lead a bipartisan push to prioritize the year round sale of E15 fuel and utilize American agriculture as a less costly energy solution.

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