Chabot: Stop high gas prices!

Rep. Steve Chabot is upset: Gas prices are soaring again to over $3 a gallon and he says it's time Congress does something about it.

Recall last summer? Gas prices were high then too. So Chabot introduced a bill to give consumers a tax credit for the high prices. The bill never passed.

Chabot is hoping legislation he and other members of the House Judiciary Committee are pushing has a better chance. Considering that the bill - called the “No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act” (“NOPEC”) - has already passed the Senate Judiciary Committee, it just may have legs.

The bill, which lawmakers will discuss during a House Judiciary Committee hearing today, would allow the U.S. government to sue member nations of OPEC for price gouging.

"OPEC ministers recently announced that they would not increase production or even offer their spare oil capacity to respond to rapidly increasing oil prices. Instead they will stand by while our oil and gasoline prices go through the roof," wrote Chabot, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., and Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., in a letter sent yesterday to other lawmakers, asking for their support on their legislation.

"The OPEC nations have for years conspired to drive up prices of imported crude oil, gouging American consumers. Their price-fixing and supply-limiting conspiracy is a clear violation of U.S. antitrust laws, yet we have no recourse for action against these nations," the lawmakers wrote. "It is time for Congress to step in to enable U.S. authorities to take legal action combating these egregious violations."

To read the bill text, go to the Library of Congress site HERE and type in the bill number: H. R. 2264.