Barry Moore blasts Democrats, blames them for energy crisis

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A customer pumps gas at a Shell gas station, Tuesday, May 10, 2022, in Miami. Marta Lavandier | AP

Rep. Barry Moore issued a statement on H.R. 7688, the Consumer Fuel Price Gouging Prevention Act, a bill that Moore believes seeks to blame energy producers for high energy prices by outlawing price gouging. Price gouging is already illegal.

According to Moore’s press release, this bill is an attempt by the democrats to distract and shift blame from the administration’s self-inflicted energy and inflation crisis and blame energy producers, despite no evidence of price gouging. At an Energy & Commerce hearing earlier this month when confronted with the question, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said, “I’m not sure anyone is saying there is wholesale gouging”.

“The Biden administration crippled American energy production, reducing supply and driving up prices, yet is blaming energy producers for the crisis by pushing a bill prohibiting price gouging, which is already illegal,” said Moore. “This outrageous hypocrisy is why Americans hate Washington and is the perfect illustration of why voters are increasingly losing trust in Democrats to offer solutions for the crises they face.”

The Biden administration canceled the Keystone XL pipeline and suspended oil and gas leasing on federal lands. Additionally, the administration has discouraged development of American natural resources leading to a surge in U.S. oil and gasoline prices over the past sixteen months. Moore also argued that House Democrats have repeatedly blocked attempts by Republicans to bring bills to the floor that would actually address the problem and return the U.S. to the energy-independent nation it was during the Trump administration.

“H.R. 7688 would take the unprecedented step to allow the FTC to investigate and take enforcement action against “unconscionable pricing” in consumer fuels, a term that is not defined by the bill and amounts to a socialist price-fixing scheme that hurts small businesses and consumers the most,” wrote Moore. “Democrats are further politicizing the FTC by giving these wide-ranging powers based on undefined parameters that will allow it to usurp market forces and set government-controlled gasoline prices, a step that history has shown will lead to less energy production and further exacerbate families’ pain at the pump.”

Just last week, President Joe Biden canceled the three remaining oil and gas lease sales scheduled in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico, and the Administration has failed to plan any future lease sales