From Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An investigation by U.S. antitrust authorities found no evidence that oil companies illegally manipulated gasoline prices or constrained oil refining operations, the Federal Trade Commission said Monday.
However, the agency said it had found 15 examples that fit lawmakers’ definition of price-gouging at the “refining, wholesale, or retail level.” It said factors like regional and local market trends appeared to explain the pricing in nearly all the cases.
Congress ordered the FTC probe last summer as part of a broad energy bill in response to a steady climb in crude oil and gasoline prices.
Instead of actually doing something about rising tax prices like increase supply by passing legislation allowing more off shore drilling and refining capacity, Congress called for the FTC to investigate oil price gouging, an ineffective and insulting political ploy getting the American people nowhere nearer to ending the country’s dependence on foreign oil.
As expected, the FTC found little to no evidence of price gouging, a conclusion evident in all other investigations within this last decade. Usually a strategy taken to heart by liberal politicians, even Republicans have attempted to make price gouging an issue in this election year. Instead of ordering some worthless investigation that doesn’t even make sense in the first place, Congress could actually focus on U.S. energy priorities before politicians go jumping to conclusions that Big Oil is gouging prices or its Big Oil’s fault that they have record profits this year.