WASHINGTON D.C. – This week, Democrats in the House of Representatives will try to misdirect voters about the source of high energy prices. Rather than taking on the policies of the Biden administration, which are the actual cause of more expensive energy, the House will take up legislation about a phantom cause: “price gouging.” The bill, H.R. 7688, is named the “Consumer Fuel Price Gouging Prevention Act,” and it would give the President vast powers to set price controls by executive fiat. If passed, this legislation will cause even more harm to American energy consumers. Price controls don’t work, and our experience during the gas lines of the 1970s should remind us that prices controls will lead to shortages.
Thomas Pyle, President of the American Energy Alliance, issued the following statement:
This legislation is a cynical attempt to deflect blame. The Biden administration, supported and encouraged by Democrats in Congress, has taken repeated action to suppress and prevent domestic oil and gas production. Now these chickens are coming home to roost, as American families face rising energy prices and prices at the pump. These prices are a direct result of the Biden administration’s war on domestic energy production.
Instead of challenging the president on the policy actions he’s taken to cause higher energy prices, Democrats in Congress are now pretending that energy inflation is being cause by supposed price gouging. This is asserted without evidence because there is no evidence. Over 90 percent of gas stations in America are independently owned. They set their prices individually based on market factors that reflect supply and demand. Pretending that these tens of thousands of small businesses are somehow coordinating to raise gas prices is preposterous, and unsurprisingly despite 20 years of investigating the Federal Trade Commission has never found any evidence of price gouging or coordinated price setting.
Democrats in Congress know all this, but there are elections this November and they are looking for someone else to blame for the energy inflation that they have caused. They should be ashamed of trying to blame hard-pressed small businesses for their own errors. This legislation is not serious governing, it is cynical politics, and Americans will see right through it.
