U.S. Lawmakers Blast Big Oil For High Gasoline Prices

Oil executives defended themselves in the US Congress on Wednesday from charges by lawmakers that they are gouging Americans with high fuel prices, saying that they are boosting energy output and no one company sets the price of gasoline, Timothy Gardner and Liz Hampton reported for Reuters.

Photo Insert: Pump prices hit a record, before inflation adjustments, of $4.33 a gallon on March 11, and since then have slipped about 4% to $4.16 a gallon on Wednesday.

Lawmakers in the US House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held the hearing to grill companies on why gasoline prices remain elevated even though prices for crude oil, the feedstock for fuels, have dropped.

US gasoline prices have surged since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February and after Western countries slapped sanctions on Moscow's energy exports.

Pump prices hit a record, before inflation adjustments, of $4.33 a gallon on March 11, and since then have slipped about 4% to $4.16 a gallon on Wednesday, according to the AAA motorist group.

In the same time frame, US gasoline futures have fallen more than 7% to $3.07 a gallon as international crude prices have dropped steeply, about 8%,to about $103.70 a barrel.

"One of the things that has confused me ... and it's making people mad, is why are gas prices still high?" asked US Rep. Diana DeGette, a Democrat and chair of the subcommittee.

"These prices are constraining our constituents' budgets and patience." Executives from Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., BP America, Shell USA, Devon Energy Corp. and Pioneer Natural Resources Co. testified virtually, despite DeGette's invitations for them to be present in the hearing.

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