U.S. Senate panel to vote Thurs on bill to sue OPEC
4/5/2011 COMMENTS (0)
WASHINGTON, April 5 (Reuters) - A U.S. Senate panel will vote on legislation this week that would allow the Justice Department to sue OPEC members for price fixing as surging gasoline prices once again threaten the economy.
The Senate Judiciary Committee will consider a bill on Thursday that would allow the federal government to subject members of OPEC to the same anti-trust laws that U.S. companies face.
Lawmakers have been scrambling to ease the pain consumers feel at the pump, with U.S. gasoline prices averaging $3.68 a gallon, the highest on record for April.
Similar anti-OPEC legislation has been proposed in the past, typically when oil prices soar and threaten the U.S. economy, but have failed to pass into law.
A sponsor of the bipartisan Senate legislation, Herb Kohl of Wisconsin, said the so-called "NOPEC" measure would prevent future gasoline price increases.
"The most fundamental principle of a free market is that competitors cannot be permitted to conspire to limit supply or fix price," Kohl said in a statement when the bill was unveiled in February.
"There can be no free market without this foundation and we should not permit any nation to flout this fundamental principle," he added.
If greenlighted by the committee, the bill would need to be approved by the full Senate chamber and the House of Representatives before it could be sent to the White House to be signed into law.
Such a measure could affect state-owned oil companies of several OPEC nations that have investments in U.S. refineries.
Oil prices hit a 2-1/2-year high over $108 a barrel this week, as unrest in North Africa and the Middle East threaten supply.
In 2008, when crude oil prices hit a record over $147 a barrel and gasoline prices topped $4 a gallon, the House actually passed a bill before prices began to crash, but it did not make it into law.
(Reporting by Ayesha Rascoe)