Hillary Clinton: Senator Clinton Welcomes Senate Investigation of Refinery Outages and Inspection of Gas Prices

The Honorable Pete V. Domenici
Ranking Member
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
D-304
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Chairman Bingaman and Ranking Member Domenici:

I write to request that you look at several pressing issues when you convene the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources next Tuesday to hold hearings on the recent spike in gas prices.

Under your leadership, the Senate Energy committee recently reported a bill that will help to make the United States less dependent on foreign oil in the coming years. I look forward to working with you on that legislation when it is brought before the Senate.

As important as these long-term measures are, we now face the immediate problem of record high gas prices. As you know, the nationwide average price for a gallon of regular gasoline broke $3.00 this week, and is predicted to stay at those levels for the duration of the summer.

United States Department of Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman has stated that the temporary shutdown of several oil refineries has reduced refinery capacity and is responsible for the recent spike in prices. According to reports, U.S. gasoline inventories have dropped 12 weeks in a row and are down about 15 percent since February. This reduction in capacity comes at a critical time, when many areas of the country are changing over from winter gasoline blends to summer gasoline blends.

Many of my constituents are suspicious of the timing and cause of these refinery outages. When you convene the Committee next Tuesday, I urge you to examine the cause of these refinery outages and whether we need stronger inspections or other processes in place to ensure that refiners invest adequately in the maintenance of their facilities. We know that the outages are hurting consumers, but they do not appear to be hurting refiners. Recent reports have indicated that refining profits in the first quarter of 2007 increased 36 percent over last year, and the U.S. refining margin increased to over $17 per barrel of oil refined.

In addition, I ask that you examine whether any price gouging has occurred as a result of these unanticipated shortages. I am a supporter of legislation that would give federal and state regulators new authority to prosecute price gouging in the wake of national energy emergencies, as well as put in place measures to ban manipulation and enhance the transparency of our nation's fuel markets.

I appreciate your consideration of this request, and look forward to working with you to act to protect American consumers from unwarranted price increases and to advance legislation to reduce our reliance on oil.

Sincerely yours,