September 22, 2005
The Federal Trade Commission is investigating whether oil companies constrained refinery capacity to illegally maintain high gasoline prices following Hurricane Katrina. An FTC official told Congress that the agency is continuing "intense scrutiny of conduct in the petroleum industry" in the aftermath of Katrina.
John Seesel, the FTC associate general counsel for energy, told the Senate Commerce Committee that, "The FTC will proceed aggressively against any violations of the antitrust and consumer protection laws that it enforces."
Oil companies and refiners deny they have acted to push up gasoline prices or reduce supply.
Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, the senior Democrat on the committee says that he believes some oil companies and service stations "have taken advantage of a national tragedy to line their pockets." Hawaii consistently faces the highest gasoline prices in the country.
The national retail price for gasoline jumped 46 cents to a record $3.07 a gallon during the week after Katrina hit. The price has fallen 28 cents since then, to $2.79 this week.
Governors from eight states have asked the Bush administration and Congress to investigate profiteering by the major oil companies after Katrina.
Separately, an official with the Government Accountability Office said recent retail gasoline prices have risen faster than crude oil prices.
Four major oil refineries remain shut and a large chunk of oil production in the Gulf of Mexico is still offline due to damage from Katrina, which slammed into Louisiana and Mississippi three weeks ago.
Now with Texas threatened by Rita, which has strengthened into a Category 5 hurricane with sustained winds of 165 mph, oil and gas companies have evacuated thousands of their workers from oil rigs and production platforms in the Gulf. Some refineries have also shut down.
