I think this is pretty dumb, but I guess politicians got to eat too. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080520/pl_nm/congress_opec_dc House passes bill to sue OPEC over oil prices By Tom Doggett 1 hour, 36 minutes ago WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The 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. ADVERTISEMENT 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.
exactly, how can you make them produce more oil. they aren't setting the prices. its in their benefit to meet demand at these prices.
Not only that - but they are foreign companies (or really, nations) that do all their production abroad. Their countries own the rights to their land and their natural resources. They have the right to sell it as they wish, and the US is simply a buyer. Why on earth would they be subject to any US laws?
Because we are the United States of America and we get whatever we want. The US have been things like that on a smaller scale for ages.
I think they are just sending a message, I am all in favor of leaving the cities of Iraq immediatly, and surrounding the oil fields.....then let's drive oil prices down throughout the world, by undercutting Opec. GET R DONE ! DD
Ignoring the obvious fact that oil would skyrocket in your scenario, even if the US were to get control of all those oil supplies, oil prices would not drop one penny. It's a free market. The US could sell it for less, and then arbitragers would simply buy it all up and re-sell it at the market-clearing price.
And the message is, LOOOKK AT US! WE ARE IDIOTS! Oh yeah, and you expect Iraq to exceed it's prewar oil output, and then sell it below market value. What?
If I'm an OPEC nation I'd laugh so hard at this I'd cry. What are we going to do to them? If they wouldn't lose money, they could just cut back on production just to raise prices even further to spite us.
wow you want to declare war and then run a blockade on the entire middle east? I think the Navy would support that.
They're doing this so they have something they can take home to their constituents rather than doing something meaningful for the national interest. These damn politicians will be the downfall of our nation.
Next on the docket should be the National Energy Policy Development Group chaired by Vice President Richard "Dick" Cheney aka the "Cheney Energy Task Force."
