US House may act next week on bill to address gas prices

US House may act next week on bill to address gas prices

Washington (Platts)--26Apr2006

The US House could act as early as next week on a Republican
bill aimed at addressing rising gasoline prices and will develop other
legislation for action soon thereafter, Speaker Dennis Hastert said Wednesday.

Hastert, Republican-Illinois, offered no details on the bill that will
see action first.

But he did outline components of what Republican lawmakers expected to be
part of a broader bill the House will debate in late June. Those include
provisions, similar to those President Bush called for on Tuesday, that would
raise penalties for price gouging at the pump, limit the number of "boutique"
fuels, stop deliveries of oil into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, allow
drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge;and further hydrogen
production and technologies. Some of these were part of a bill the House
passed in October.

"States are responsible for enforcing most price gouging statutes. We
would like to see legislation that provides for federal civil penalties for
violations and empowers the [Federal Trade Commission], in coordination with
state attorneys general, to work to improve standards and enforcement
mechanisms," Hastert said.

House Democrats have offered a competing bill that states that any
"unconscionably excessive" gasoline price constitutes abuse. There is also a
bipartisan coalition pushing Hastert and Majority Leader John Boehner,
Republican-Ohio, to support greater use of biofuels and alternative fuel
vehicles to cut oil imports 10% in 10 years.

---Mike Schmidt, mike_schmidt@platts.com

For more information, take a trial to Platts Inside Energy at
http://insideenergy.platts.com.

Please visit: www.platts.com

Their coverage of energy matters is extensive!!.