"U.S. House passes bill to sue OPEC over oil prices"

[Damage control]

Posted under fair use. Link.

By Tom Doggett

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. 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)

DC ........

[Kaos]

LOL, If we were drilling our own oil we wouldn't be worrying about other countries getting pissy.

But alas, poor polar bears.

[slicknick131]

A DOJ lawsuit against OPEC?

Great, a new waste of federal dollars! With the money they could save, the government could just buy a half dozen barrels of oil. Alright, maybe five.

[Swarner793]

At one point after the announcement, the price of a barrel jumped $9. It then settled some. I don't know WTF they were thinking!

They say in ten years, China will be using, in one day, all the oil that is produced in one day. Think about what that will do to the supply. Hard times cometh.

Be safe.

Scott

[BearTitan]

It's like gun control legislation in that it makes politicians look like they are doing something, but in reality it functions to hurt the stated cause of its supporters. For gun control, they say that they want to reduce gun crimes, but then enact legislation that causes those very crimes to increase. For the OPEC lawsuits, they are going to sieze OPEC assets located in the United States and then OPEC is going to cause another gas shortage. Then we will have both edges of the sword: availability and price.

Right now, there is plenty of gas, but it is expensive. An oil embargo will cause there to be a shortage of gasoline. Prices could climb as high as $10 a gallon and even then, the availability of gasoline could be severely limited.

Imagine that you can not get gas. You can't go to work. You can't get paid. No money, no rent, mortgage, or credit card payment. An already weak economy collapses.

The bill is an attempt at global Socialism. I say that if you don't like the price of gasoline, don't buy it. Ride a bike or buy a hybrid. If you drive a pickup and SUV (like I do), suck it up and accept your level of responsibility for the price of gas.

[addicted2freedom]

Idiots. Do something meaningful and sue the Fed.

[sjl127]

The arrogance of Washington is disturbing. To think that they're the elite leaders of others.

[stevieb92]

I thought I had heard of everything, until I heard this.

Can "We The People" sue our government?

[sjl127]

I thought I had heard of everything, until I heard this.

Can "We The People" sue our government?

We have the ability to fire them, but... people are too lackadaisical.

[stevieb92]

We have the ability to fire them, but... people are too lackadaisical.

Thats not good enough for me. IMHO, the "lawmakers" should pay restitution to the people for how they have screwed up our country. They are the same people who forbid us to harvest our own natural resources, and at the same time profess that we need to free ourselves from foreign oil?