A study released by the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights California (FTCR) today finds oil company profiteering is the cause of recent gasoline price spikes. Will President Bush do at least as much as his Dad to curb oil company profiteering in the wake of Katrina?
At the outbreak of the Persian Gulf war, G.H.W. Bush called upon oil companies to freeze prices and show restraint. They did so for about two weeks. Yet G.W. Bush's response to $5 per gallon gas in the South has been to ignore oil company profiteering.
Today's study found that from January 17th to April 18th 2005 California gasoline prices jumped 65 cents per gallon and refiner profits rose by 61 cents per gallon. Hurricane Katrina will only increase the probability of oil company profiteering. Will the Prez even ask oil companies nicely to voluntarily freeze the price of gasoline, let alone warn them?
Hurricane Katrina should be a wakeup call to Washington, DC that oil companies maintain insufficient refinery capacity and inventories to serve the American public. If the Prez doesn't come around, Democrats need to remind Bush that just because Big Oil gives him big campaign bucks doesn't mean the companies should be allowed to collect between $3 and $5 per gallon at the pump.