House Democrats Join Calls for DOJ Probe of Oil and Gas Price-Fixing Claims

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee have joined Senate Democrats’ calls for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate claims of price-fixing in the oil industry. Citing a recent Federal Trade Commission (FTC) complaint, a group of 10 members led by Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), the committee’s top Democrat, urged Attorney General Merrick Garland and Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust Jonathan Kanter to probe allegations of collusion within the industry to keep prices up. “By any measure, these are good times for oil companies in the United States,” the group of Democrats wrote in a June 4 letter. They noted that last year, the two largest U.S. oil companies, Exxon Mobil and Chevron, earned their biggest annual profits in a decade. “But apparently, instead of passing those profits through to consumers in the form of cheaper products, the oil giants have been lining their own pockets while conspiring to keep prices high,” they wrote....