Schumer Urges Big Oil, Gas Probe on Price-Fixing Allegations
The Justice Department should launch an industry-wide investigation into oil and gas companies related to any possible collusion or price-fixing, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and several other Democrats said on Thursday.
Congressional Democrats have ramped up pressure on the oil and gas industry in recent months as the election season draws closer, criticizing companies’ record profits and their commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The move comes after the Federal Trade Commission alleged it found evidence of price-fixing involving American oil executive Scott Sheffield and OPEC officials. Sheffield, the former head of Pioneer Natural Resources Co., which Exxon Mobil Corp. this month bought in a $60 billion acquisition, has denied being involved in any price-fixing to enrich the industry at the expense of American consumers and businesses.
The FTC banned Sheffield from serving on Exxon’s board.
The senators’ request goes beyond looking into potential Sherman Act antitrust violations related to Pioneer. It urges DOJ to probe the industry for potential malfeasance, and “investigate the oil industry, to hold accountable any liable actors, and to end any illegal activities,” according to the May 30 letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Jonathan Kanter, assistant attorney general of the department’s antitrust division.
“From pre-pandemic times to current day, industry collusion may have contributed to the 49% decrease in the U.S. oil production growth rate,” said the letter signed by Schumer, 21 Democrats and Independent Bernie Sanders (VT).
“Pioneer’s and its co-conspirators’ collusion may have cost the average American household up to $500 per car in increased annual fuel costs – an unwelcome tax that is particularly burdensome for lower-income families. Meanwhile, Western oil majors collectively earned more than $300 billion in profits over the last two years, a surge that many market experts believe cannot be explained away by increased production costs from the pandemic or inflation,” the letter said, referring to major oil com panies in the Western Hemisphere.
Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) as well as House Energy and Commerce ranking member Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) have also called for wide-ranging probes into Big Oil and possible price-fixing.
