[DEBATE] : House Passes Bill to Sue OPEC over Oil Prices

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

Wow, this is an extraordinary foolish bill! -- Yoshie

<http://www.reuters.com/article/wtMostRead/idUSWAT00953020080520>
House passes bill to sue OPEC over oil prices
Tue May 20, 2008 2:27pm EDT

By Tom Doggett

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.

(Editing by Christian Wiessner)

-- 
Yoshie
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